The Mystery of the Clasped Watchband
by Katty008
Summary: After being called in on a case involving a body with no cause of death and a missing person, Nancy goes undercover due to something the victims said. But upon enrolling at Ekoda High, she finds that there is far more to the case than she bargained for.
1. The Case

**Disclaimer: I don't own Detective Conan, Magic Kaito, Nancy Drew, or the Hardy Boys, as much as I wish it.**

**Hi! So recently, I'm not even sure quite how this happened, I was reinterested in Nancy Drew *is a nerd*. Not in the "read the books" way, more in the "OMG MUST BE CROSSOVERED!" way. Hence this. Yeah. Also, so that I can have new characters to mentally scar, as you will soon find out. Have fun!**

* * *

There were people with black hair everywhere. Nancy Drew, with her strawberry blond locks, felt more than a little out of place. She searched for several minutes before she finally saw the man who had come to meet her at the Tokyo Airport, Fenton Hardy. Dark hair with hints of grey poked out from underneath the tan hat the shadows from which caused the heavy bags under his eyes to stand out. He was pale, and the long brown coat didn't quite manage to hide the fact that he was thinner than he was the last time Nancy had seen him.

It hadn't quite seemed real up until then, the news. It seemed like something far off that didn't really affect her. Now though, with Fenton Hardy standing in front of her and looking like the rug, along with the floor, had been yanked quite rudely out from under his feet, she got the rude awakening that yes, this was really happening.

"I'm sorry," she stammered out at him after they had exchanged the usual, now forced, pleasantries.

"We all are. Every single one of us." And Nancy realized that she had never seen a man put so much effort into holding back tears before.

"I'll do my absolute best to help out in any way possible. They're my friends, and I'm going to see this through."

Fenton Hardy nodded tersely, and they left the airport. Once in the taxi cab, he started to fill her in on what had been left out from that first phone call. "They had come here to chase that damned thief, whatever his name is. The flashy one. They had been planning it for nearly a year now, to come here during break and spend the summer playing tag. I thought it would just be a bit of good natured fun, much safer than what they usually get up to when left to their own devices. After all, nothing," he choked slightly, "Almost never does something serious actually happen at those affairs. Then one day..." Fenton nearly lost control. Nancy put a comforting hand on his shoulder. Fenton closed his eyes, took a few deep breaths, and continued.

"One day Joe called me. They'd been calling pretty regularly just to chat and catch up, but this was different. He sounded excited, but a little wary. He tried asking about the normal things, but I knew something was up. I tried asking him what he and Frank had gotten into, but he wouldn't tell me. Just that it was big, and he'd be able to tell me more in a couple of days maybe. I think... I think it was big. Bigger than he and Frank could have imagined, bigger than anything they'd dealt with before. Frank also got on the line and said something about that thief being mixed up in something, but that was it."

"Any news on Frank yet?" Nancy prodded gently.

Fenton shook his head. "None. Not a whisper." He suddenly turned his eyes on Nancy. "Nancy, I want you to promise me something. I know you want to bring whoever did this to justice as much as I do, but you can't take any unnecessary risks. I want you to promise me that you'll tell someone before you ever run off on your own, you understand me? I don't think I could face your father and tell him that I dragged you into this mess and the same thing happened to you as happened to my boy. You promise?"

Nancy nodded. "I promise. I understand the risks involved, and I will be as safe and cautious as I know how to be." She paused. "If I may ask, what exactly did happen? You were very vague on the phone."

Fenton Hardy smiled. A very, very sad smile. "We're heading to the precinct now. It's a doozy, just you wait and see."

* * *

They were met at the precinct by a short haired woman who introduced herself as Detective Sato and ushered them in. As soon as they were inside, she turned to Fenton. "Mr. Hardy, Inspector Megure would like to go over a few points with you. He's in his office, if you would like to go talk with him while I escort Miss Drew to the morgue."

Fenton Hardy nodded slowly. "Yes. Yes, that is a good idea. I'll go see what he's still unclear on." He ambled off, clearly knowing where he was going.

Nancy looked pointedly at Detective Sato. "I see what you did there. That was a good thing."

Detective Sato smiled softly. "I've been around him for the past week. He's the walking example of what happens when emotional policemen are connected to a case. He barely eats, and his hotel room could stand a bit more use. Come on, the morgue's this way."

As they walked, Detective Sato handed Nancy a file she was carrying. "This contains all the reports related to the case. There's not much evidence. The body was found abandoned and alone. The only trace of the other brother was his watch nearby. The watchband, strangely enough, was latched. Very little blood on the scene."

"What was the cause of death?" Nancy asked, trying not to gag.

"There was none."

Nancy stopped dead in her tracks. "What do you mean, there was none?"

"There was no cause of death." Detective Sato took a few more steps, then held open a door. "Joe Hardy is a healthy seventeen year old boy. Other than the fact that he's physically dead."

"But... that's impossible."

Detective Sato nodded. "I know. Which is why finding his brother is one of our top priorities. If he's still alive, he may be able to shed some light on this impossibility. Come on, the morgue's in here."

Nancy had been in morgues before, but this time was different. This time, the dead person she had come to see was not just a victim; it was a victim she knew, one that she counted as a friend. Detective Sato exchanged a few words with the mortician, then turned back to Nancy. "You look like you have a question."

Nancy nodded. "Why are you trusting me with all this? I'm just some teenage girl you've never met. Surely there's something at work here other than Fenton Hardy's good word."

Detective Sato smiled. "Oh, you'll do just fine. The truth is, we've got our own teenage detective whiz kid running around here somewhere, so we're used to the phenomenon."

"Really?" Nancy was intrigued. "Then why not them? Mr. Hardy said the case called for a teenager to go undercover. Wouldn't it be better to use someone who would stick out less?"

This time Detective Sato chuckled. "It would be, but in Kudo-kun's case he sticks out like a sore thumb. Always got to be the center of attention. No, he'd never be able to do undercover work. And besides, we don't actually know where he is."

"You mean he's missing too? Maybe the cases are related!"

Sato shook her head. "No, no. He's not missing, just on some sort of world tour I think. He still shows up occasionally and calls his girlfriend often. No, he's not missing, he's just not here."

And Nancy thought that maybe she had just been stalling with that question, because suddenly they're standing in front of a slab and the mortician is pulling back a white sheet. And suddenly she's staring at a dead face with blond hair and closed eyes and oh god it's Joe, it's her friend Joe, he's really dead and this is not happening...

* * *

Nancy awakens on the floor of the morgue, Detective Sato's worried visage hovering above. "How long...?" Nancy manages to get out, that overworn question always used when someone wakes up on the floor.

"Just a few seconds," Detective Sato answers, and helps her sit up.

Nancy puts a hand to her head. "I'm sorry, I don't know what came over me."

Detective Sato smiles. "Don't worry. Just the shock. Happens to the best of us."

Nancy, with Detective Sato hovering close, stood up and looked again at Joe's body. There was a patch of broken skin on his right temple where someone had struck him with something, and some dried blood that had not been cleaned off clung to the skin around it. But other than that there were no marks on the too-pale skin. "No cause of death?"

Sato shook her head. "No cause of death. That head injury is the only indication that anything even happened. If it weren't for the head injury, one could even go so far as to assume that he was walking down the street when he suddenly dropped dead for no apparent reason."

"That is so weird," Nancy breathed. She suddenly looked at Detective Sato. "Can we leave please?"

Detective Sato nodded. "Come on, let's go meet the others."

'The others' turned out to be an almost motley assortment of suits. Other than Fenton Hardy, there was also a wide man in a hat who was introduced as Inspector Megure, three underlings (a fat one, a proud one, and one who seemed to have some sort of close relationship with Detective Sato), and a frowning man in a green suit who looked as if he didn't really want to be there. They all introduced themselves, except for the green suit, and Inspector Megure set down to the business of briefing Nancy on what had happened so far and what they needed her to do.

"You know what's happened," he started. He then gestured at the file Nancy was carrying that Detective Sato had given her. "That file contains all the information we have, and will fill in any holes you may have that we can fill."

"One thing I'm not sure on is why precisely you need me to go undercover, a teenager."

Inspector Megure cleared his throat. Fenton Hardy, who up until then had been looking very lost, spoke up. "We're not sure, but there might be a high school mixed up in this. One of the things my sons mentioned when they were not telling me what they were working on was Ekoda High School. They were vague enough that we're not sure how it's connected, or even if it is at all, but regardless we want someone to go in there and do some snooping around. The case may involve the school in some way, or perhaps Frank and Joe had gone over there themselves and someone had seen them and may know something, we don't know."

Inspector Megure gestured to the man in the green suit. "This is Inspector Nakamori, he heads the Kaito Kid Task Force, the task force dedicated to catching the thief that Frank and Joe Hardy were in Japan to chase. He worked with the boys while they were here, and has a daughter who attends Ekoda High School. You'll be staying with him as an exchange student and be in the same class as his daughter Aoko. She'll be able to help you around while at the school."

"Frank and Joe were good kids," Inspector Nakamori finally spoke up. "A little underfoot at times, but good kids. I'll do my part to help catch their killer. But I still think you're barking up the wrong tree," he argued. Nancy couldn't help but notice that he was already referring to Frank in the past tense. He then turned to Nancy. "Aoko doesn't know about all this. She just thinks an exchange student's going to come live with us, and it's going to stay that way. You are not going to drag her into this. She's no detective, and I don't want her in any danger. Got that?"

Ah. So that's what he was so angry about. "Understood sir. I can keep a secret."

"I still say her classmates-to-be will rip the whole thing wide open," Nakamori grumbled.

* * *

Nancy decided that she was going to have to do something very nice for Nakamori Ginzo before she left Japan. Nakamori Aoko had been more than pleased to meet her, but Inspector Nakamori informed her in due course that Nancy was tired from her flight and would probably appreciate going to bed early. This Nancy appreciated wholeheartedly. She did feel a little tired, but that was completely overruled by the emotions tumbling through her body. She knew that she would never be able to get to sleep, so she turned to what she did best in such situations: work.

She changed into her pajamas and curled up in bed with the file. She went over each page of reports with a fine-toothed comb, looking for anything that could be the slightest clue. But Detective Sato and the others had been right, there was very little in terms of evidence. One Joe Hardy, dead, no apparent reason, and one Frank Hardy, missing, only trace of his being with his brother the watch, with the niggling fact of the band being closed. The watch could very well be a message from Frank. The fact that the band was closed meant that it hadn't fallen off, so perhaps Frank had taken it off deliberately and left it there to indicate he was still alive somewhere. But if so, then where?

Nancy bit her lip. Frank had been there. He had known that neither he nor Joe would be able to get to the police, so he had left the watch with the closed band as a message. There was no other reason the watch with the closed band would be lying there so innocently. He'd known that Joe wasn't going to be able to get away. That they were going to kill Joe. Perhaps he had been forced to watch while they did... whatever it was they'd done to Joe.

Nancy swiftly closed the file and put in the drawer of the end table. She'd read all of it anyway. Then she rolled over and, burying her face in her pillow just in case Aoko could otherwise hear, she started to cry. And she knew that Frank, wherever he was, felt ten times worse.

* * *

Nancy woke up bright and early the next day to get in the right mindset. New student, happy and excited to be there, hello my name's Nancy Drew, wow this is an adventure, I'm not a detective what are you talking about, no secrets here nuh-uh, I don't suppose you're heard about that recent murder, the American boy, I wonder if I should be worried about myself, after all if there's going to be a murder here what are the odds it'll be an American, not fishing for information whatever gave you that idea? And so on.

Then she turned to the folded navy uniform on the chair. Here goes nothing.

As they walked to school Aoko chattered about their classmates, and gave Nancy a quick overview of most of them. Momoi Keiko, who had pigtails and glasses, was a good friend of Aoko's. Koizumi Akako was a very pretty witch (Nancy filed this under "To Disregard At Leisure"). Hakuba Saguru's father was in the police force and his mother was British. He spent a lot of time in London, was a teenage detective, and chased Kid whenever he could. At this point Nancy was treated to a rather long rant on "that stupid thief", and had to marvel at Aoko's passion on the subject. Since Nancy was a little curious and it was vaguely tied into her case, she took advantage of the topic to ask Aoko a few questions.

The profile she started to build in her head was definitely one of the more eccentric ones. No wonder Frank and Joe had been attracted to the challenge. First appears in Paris, runs around stealing things and then giving them back, so seemingly just for the fun challenge, for about ten years, then vanishes, then all of a sudden eight years later he's back. Nancy filed the profile, and the eight year disappearance, under "Maybe Important", with the disappearance as an unanswered question which may be related to her case.

Nancy was about to ask Aoko what she thought was the reason behind Kid's disappearance, when she suddenly felt a breeze.

"Good morning Aoko! Good morning Aoko's friend!" an entirely too cheerful voice greeted.

"_KAAIITOO!_"

Nancy realized belatedly that the newcomer, a boy who apparently went by the name of Kaito and knew Aoko well, had just flipped both hers and Aoko's skirts, and that Aoko was now on a roaring rampage of revenge for this. Nancy stood there, hands on her hips, and waited for Aoko to cool down a little. "Well, aren't you going to introduce me to your lovely friend?" Nancy asked once she had, all acidic sweetness.

"Nancy-san, this is Kuroba Kaito, a friend of mine. Kaito, this is Nancy Drew. She's an exchange student from America who'll be staying with me and my dad for a while."

Nancy held out her hand. "It's nice to meet you Kuroba-kun."

Kaito took the hand. Nancy, having him right where she wanted him, threw him into the ground. Aoko was awed. "Can you teach me how to do that?"

"Oww! That's it, I'm never letting you catch hold of me! Vicious!" Kaito picked himself up off the ground and made a rose appear from out of nowhere in his hand. He held it out to Nancy. "Peace offering?"

"I wouldn't take it," Aoko advised. "It might explode, or something. With Kaito, it's the 'or something's that you want to watch out for."

"Honest! Just a peace offering! Even Hakuba hasn't thrown me yet!" Nancy continued to just stare at him. "Damn, tough crowd." Kaito then threw the rose up into the air, where it exploded into confetti. He then offered both arms for the taking. "Well ladies, shall we?"

Aoko ignored him, brushing past. "You think you're so smooth. Come on Nancy-san, ignore him. He just wants attention."

The trio continued on to Ekoda High School, Nancy and Aoko talking and Kaito vying for attention. Nancy got the feeling that he wasn't used to having to share Aoko. Once they got to school and changed their shoes, Kaito and Aoko showed Nancy where the classroom was. There she met the other classmates who had already arrived, and they asked all sorts of questions.

Then suddenly another blond student appeared, almost out of nowhere. "Hmmm. And who might you be?"

Aoko smiled widely. "Good morning Hakuba-kun! This is Nancy Drew, she's an exchange student staying at my house!"

So this was Hakuba Saguru, the teenage detective with the father in the police force and the mother in London. "How do you do? It's very nice to meet you."

"And you too," Hakuba Saguru said in his sugary yet obnoxious tone of voice. "Nancy Drew, hmm? I do believe I've heard that name before."

"Oh?" Nancy asked weakly. She was starting to understand what Inspector Nakamori had meant when he's said that her new classmates would know why she was there in a jiffy.

"Yes, in conjunction with a few American cases I've read up on. Nothing serious, there's a murder or two, but mostly missing wills, secret staircases, haunted mansions, that kind of thing."

Nancy shrugged and smiled innocently. "I'm a bit of an amateur detective. But I hear you're much better than all that."

Unfortunately it turned out that Hakuba was not egotistical enough for the attempt to swing the conversation towards him to work. "I've merely had access. I'm sure you could handle your fair share of murders if you were given the same access."

"You never said you were a _detective_," Kaito said, sounding almost whiny.

"I'm not, not really. You heard Hakuba-kun, amateur things. Put me in a room with a secret passageway and I can find it guaranteed, but don't expect me to be able to point at a murderer."

"Being a teenage amateur American sleuth, have you heard of Frank and Joe Hardy?"

Hakuba's eyebrow cocked and his eyes told her that he definitely thought something was up with her sudden appearance. He wanted in. Well tough, Nancy wasn't going to let him in. What she noticed that surprised her though was the way that Kaito's eyes hardened at the mention of Frank and Joe, like he knew something. Definitely something for Nancy to ask about later. Away from Hakuba. "Well yes. I've worked with them on one or two occasions. I'd heard that they were here in Japan for the summer chasing after that Kaito Kid. I hear from Aoko-san that you also chase Kid. I suppose you've met them?"

"Yes. They have that innate ability to work together that only comes from years of practice. Well, I should say had. I suppose you've heard what happened?"

"I've heard rumors that something's happened. Other than that, nothing."

Almost unsurprisingly, it was Kaito who spoke. "It happened a couple weeks ago. Joe was found dead, and Frank's still missing. We're all really sorry."

And now Nancy had to act like she'd just heard, and that she wasn't as close to them as she really was. She just hoped that Frank and Joe hadn't actually talked that much about her with Hakuba. "I... see. That's... Well I hope Frank turns up. I really do, though I'm sure when he does he'll be absolutely torn apart."

Just then the teacher entered the classroom and called for everyone to sit down. As he did so, Hakuba's eyes remained on Nancy. She knew that he wasn't going to give up, and that for some reason he was going to do everything in his power to learn why she was suddenly there and how it was connected to Joe's murder.

Nancy fixed her own eyes on Kuroba Kaito. He knew something about the Hardys and what had happened to them, something that he was hiding. From the way his eyes had hardened, he wanted justice as much as she did, so why wasn't he telling someone what he knew? She put him down on her "To Question Later" list, and kept her eyes on him throughout the rest of the morning.

* * *

**Okay, so it's probably pretty obvious what vaguely happened to Frank. Or maybe that's just because I'm the person writing it, who knows. But either way, since this is from Nancy's POV and she doesn't know everything we know, it'll still be a mystery to her. When Frank finally does show up (he will, don't worry), I hope I don't write him too OOC. I've never actually read the Hardy Boys books, just Wikipedia, fanfiction, and watched playthroughs of the two Nancy Drew games they were in. Anyway, reviews please!**

**(And yes, Nancy can throw Kaito. She was already hanging on to him, and Nancy's a complete Mary Sue, remember? ;D)**


	2. The Investigation

**Disclaimer: I don't own Detective Conan, Magic Kaito, Nancy Drew, or the Hardy Boys.**

**Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!**

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* * *

**

Unfortunately it turned out that Hakuba was very smooth, and very, very good. Nancy had been lunching on the roof with Aoko and Kaito when he walked up. He smirked widely when he saw her company, but changed it to a polite smile before they could notice. "Ah, Nancy, I was hoping to find you up here. How are you liking Japan so far?"

Nancy smiled back at him. "Well, I haven't seen much other than the inside of a classroom so far, but I'm liking the inside of the classroom."

"Shame that you haven't had a chance to sightsee yet. Tokyo's quite beautiful if you know where to look."

This seemed to give Aoko an idea. "Of course!" She started tugging urgently on Kaito's sleeve. "Kaito, let's go plan a Grand Tour of Tokyo for Nancy! A surprise!"

Nancy laughed. "I'm sitting right here, Aoko-san."

"Don't be silly, the tour itself won't be the surprise, it'll be where we go! Come on Kaito, I need your help on this!"

Kaito cocked an eyebrow. "Sure. Sounds like a good plan Aoko." He and Aoko both stood up. "It'll be the tour to end all tours," he said directly to Nancy, and she couldn't help but feel that there was something more to the sentence. As the two of them left, Kaito bumped into Nancy. "Oh, sorry."

As soon as Kaito and Aoko had gone beyond hearing range, Hakuba leveled a look on Nancy. "Check your pocket."

"Why?"

"Check your pocket," Hakuba repeated, urgently.

Confused, Nancy did so. She pulled out everything she remembered putting in her pocket, plus one other thing: a small round thing that looked a little like an LED light. "What is this?"

Hakuba chuckled. "Knew it." He then grabbed the object and crushed it under his foot. "There. Now he can't listen in."

"Who can't listen in?"

"Kuroba of course. You saw his expression when I mentioned the Hardys. He knows something that he's not telling. And he knows that I specifically got him and Aoko out of the way so I could question you on what you know, so he slipped that listening device into your pocket so that he can learn what we know."

"If he knows something, why hasn't he gone to the police?" Nancy questioned. "You know the lay of the land, tell me what you think."

Hakuba smiled. "Because he most likely didn't come by his information through entirely legal means."

"What makes you say that?"

"Nancy, I've got a pretty good idea why you're here. I know that you're not just a casual acquaintance of the Hardys, that bluff was way too easy for me to call. You spill your beans, I'll spill mine, that's the way this is going to work."

"Okay, but you go first."

Hakuba held his hands away from his body in a shrugging gesture. "That'll work for me. The reason Kuroba hasn't gone to the police with what he knows is because he can't. He can't because then he'd have to tell them how he learned it. He can't tell them how he learned it because he is Kaito Kid."

"What!" That was not what Nancy was expecting. "If he's this Kid character I keep hearing about, how come he hasn't been arrested?"

"Because unfortunately he can be very slippery when it comes to wriggling away at the last minute. But there's enough coincidences and circumstantial evidence that I'm positive it can't be anyone else. I have a couple different theories as to how he could have come across his information, all plausible. Perhaps he witnessed the murder as Kid, when he as Kuroba would have no reason to be there. Perhaps he slipped a listening device much like the one I just destroyed into the pocket of one of the Hardys. Who knows."

Nancy's mind was racing. She's barely gotten started, and already she was bumping into Kaito Kid left and right. Frank and Joe had come to Japan to chase Kid. They had then apparently discovered that Kid was involved in something big, and mentioned this school. Hakuba was convinced that Kuroba Kaito, who knew something about Joe's murder and went to this school, was Kaito Kid.

Well, it seemed her entire case rested on the shoulders of Japan's most elusive thief. Absolutely fantastic.

"You shouldn't mention any of this to the Nakamoris by the way," Hakuba said after he was done.

Nancy looked up from her thoughts. "Oh? Why not?"

Hakuba shifted uncomfortably, and Nancy got the feeling he was speaking from experience. "Kaito and Aoko have been very close friends since they were little. The Nakamoris have a bit of a blind spot when it comes to the Kurobas."

"Kurobas? Plural?"

Hakuba smirked. "You don't think a two year old was running around stealing things, do you? Eight years ago, Kuroba's father died in a stage accident. This was mere weeks after Kid's last theft before his hiatus. Yet more circumstantial evidence that won't hold water. Anyway, I've told you why Kuroba can't go to the police with what he knows. Now it's your turn. Why are you really here?"

Nancy sat down. "Frank and Joe's father is here in Tokyo working on the case. Frank and Joe had called him a day before the body was found. They were excited about something, but wouldn't tell him why. They did mention this school in passing however, and so there's a working theory that this school is somehow connected to the situation at hand. At first I had no idea why a high school could be connected, but now that you've told me about your Kuroba/Kid theory, it seems more plausible."

Hakuba sat down next to her. "You're here undercover. Why you?"

Nancy smiled at him, but she knew he would see right through it. "You were right, we're not just casual acquaintances. Frank and Joe, they're rather good friends of mine. When their father Fenton Hardy realized that maybe they needed a teen to go undercover, I was the first person he thought of. So he called me up and asked if I wanted to help find Frank and solve Joe's murder. It was... a bit of a shock. The unreal kind, until I was in the morgue yesterday."

Hakuba shifted so he could look straight at her more easily. "So since you're undercover, you're on the inside of the investigation, right? They're telling you everything, or at least more than they're telling the general public."

Nancy shrugged. "I suppose so. Why do you ask?"

"I've been trying to get into the investigation myself. I'm a little surprised that they would call you up when I was already going to school here and was more than willing to help out. At any rate, they won't tell me a thing. All I know is what's in the papers and what I've managed to glean from a handful of tattletales. I don't even know how he died." Saguru grimaced. "I wouldn't be surprised if it turns out my father's involved in this in some way. He originally wanted me to come to Japan to chase Kid in order to get me away from the bodies."

Nancy actually laughed at that. "That's the thing though, isn't it? No one knows how Joe Hardy died."

Saguru was taken aback at that. "What do you mean, no one knows? Are there no marks and for some reason they haven't performed an autopsy yet?"

Nancy shook her head. "Nope. They're performed an autopsy, but it's come up completely blank. They haven't the foggiest idea why he's dead."

Saguru whistled low. "Wow. Now I really want in. Anyone who can do that... sheesh, they'd be able to kill dozens of people and probably get away clear."

"Dozens of people..." Nancy repeated quietly.

"What was that?"

Nancy suddenly lashed out and grabbed Saguru by the shoulders. "That's it! Dozens of people! If someone had the ability to kill like that, they wouldn't just keep it to themselves! Clearly it's been used to kill once, so it's not in the hands of someone with strong moral compunctions. If you were someone without strong moral compunctions and you had that kind of power, what would you do? Kill dozens of people? Or sell it to people who would kill dozens of people for an outrageous amount of money?"

"But there hasn't been a mass number of people just dropping dead," Saguru pointed out the flaw in her logic. "As far as I know, there's just been Joe Hardy."

Nancy was working through it. "Well they wouldn't want to give the game away too quickly, would they? Use normal methods whenever they could, but every once and a while a silencer wouldn't do the trick and so they just drop dead! And of course if the body was found it would be like this murder, the facts would be held back because what police department would want to admit that they couldn't even figure out why the victim died?"

Saguru was nodding slowly to this. "Yes, there could be other cases like this, we just haven't heard about them for the exact reason you stated. And of course such a method of killing would only be created either by accident, or by some sort of organization of hit men that could expect to get back the time and undoubtedly money that they poured into the development of such a weapon through repeated use. So unless Joe just happens to be the very first, there are others."

"It's perfect," Nancy breathed. "That's what this is: the perfect murder. And see, that makes sense! Frank and Joe thought that Kaito Kid was mixed up in something big. This, this here is definitely _huge_. But things still don't make sense!"

"Where's Frank?" Saguru agreed.

"Why would they kill one and not the other? Why would they keep Frank alive? Well the obvious conclusion is that they wanted something from him. But if that were so, why would they kill Joe? Those two would do anything to keep each other safe, if they wanted something from Frank, Joe was much more valuable to them alive. Or perhaps this miracle murder of theirs didn't work for some reason, it killed Joe but not Frank. Then why not just kill him then and there in a more traditional manner? So let's assume that they couldn't for some reason, maybe it was Kid but don't ask me how. They take him away and kill him somewhere else. It's been weeks, and so many people are looking for him, don't you think we would've found a body by now? They could've dumped him in the ocean, but why go the distance? He wouldn't have any evidence that couldn't be taken away."

"He escaped," Saguru stated.

"_Then where is he?_" Nancy hissed. "And how does this Kaito Kid character fit in?"

Saguru nodded. "I can't see Kid mixed up in this in any way, honestly. Heists are fun and games when you get down to it and ignore the whole stealing thing, not dead bodies and perfect murders." He stood up and made to leave. "You should tell Inspector Megure about the 'dozens of bodies' theory though, it makes sense. Perhaps he could send out feelers and put some pressure on people to admit they've got murders and they can't figure out why. It might bring in something. Unless you're holding out on me, this case seems like one huge mess."

Nancy sighed. "Kaito Kid holds the key. Of all the people in the world, Kaito Kid holds the key to solving this, and I don't think he's going to give it up."

"Let me tell you one thing Nancy Drew: Kaito Kid is very much interested in justice. He has worked with the police several times, though it often hasn't become apparent until after. You just need to give him the right openings, push in the right places, and his information will make it to you." And with that said, Hakuba Saguru walked away to reenter the school.

As soon as he was gone, Nancy shifted and reached into a small crack in the wall. She pulled out a tiny device identical to the one that Saguru had previously destroyed. "You, Kuroba Kaito, are far too slippery by half," she told it. "Don't think I haven't figured out how clever you are. You knew that Hakuba-kun would suspect you of leaving a bug, so you left two: one secretly, and one obviously. Hakuba-kun is too focused to think you would leave two; he would crush the one and think the situation dealt with. And so now you know just what this case hinges on.

"There's one thing that you should know about me and my state of mind at the moment: I don't give a damn. I couldn't care less about catching Kaito Kid, as well as Hakuba-kun's theory about you. I just want this case solved and Frank found. I know you know something Kuroba Kaito, Hakuba-kun and I both do. And I know that whatever the answer to this puzzle is, Kaito Kid is in it up to his neck. I don't care how you get your information to me, just that you do. Please."

And with that, Nancy set about examining the bug and, finding a microscopic switch, fiddled with it a bit until she managed to flip the switch with her nail.

* * *

It didn't take long for Kuroba Kaito/Kaito Kid/Whoever to act. Nancy found a typed, anonymous note tucked into her book with a time and place, and the postscript to come alone. Considering the caveat, it was pretty clear who the note was from.

In the meantime, Nancy told Inspector Nakamori about the 'dozens of bodies' theory without letting on that Hakuba now knew. He said he'd pass on her theory to Inspector Megure and that they'd look into it. He'd become gradually more worried as she'd explained the basis behind the theory, and she didn't blame him.

Nancy thus arrived at the café alone and sat at one of the outside tables in the sun. She took a long glance around and, seeing no one of note, pulled out her book and started reading. It wasn't long though before someone sat down opposite her. She was rather surprised to see that it was Kuroba himself, and said as much. "You came as yourself."

"Who says I'm not just disguised as Kuroba Kaito?"

"I do," Nancy answered, replacing her bookmark. "Which means that you think I'm earnest enough to trust. Either that, or this is really big. Or both."

Kuroba leaned close. "This is big. Bigger than you could possibly imagine. And very, very dangerous. You already know this. However, they don't know you know this. You could still walk away, right now. Turn around, and leave with your life. That's no guarantee if you continue down this path. The risk will grow ever greater that they will find out about you and how much you know, until one day they do find out, and then there's no more Nancy Drew."

Nancy also leaned in. "Just like there's no more Joe Hardy?"

Kaito paused. "That method, as you have deduced, is for special cases. You might just qualify. Trust me when I say that a bullet to the brain would be infinitely preferable."

"So the perfect murder is very painful?"

"Incredibly so."

"Just as much pain to watch?"

"Like you would not believe."

"Tell me."

"No. It's too dangerous. I won't let anything happen to you if I can help it."

"I'm not giving this case up until I know what happened and I find Frank. They're my friends and I'm not giving up. It would be better to know what you know than to fly blind. If you want me to stay safe, tell me."

Kaito sighed and started to stand up. "I'll do you one better. I'll show you." Nancy also stood and followed him for a few blocks, then he abruptly stopped between two buildings. "Here."

Nancy realized why Kaito had chosen that particular café as their meeting place. The side street was well lit in the midday light, and just barely wide enough for an American-sized car to drive down. The overall effect was almost cheerful, not the kind of place for a murder. Kaito started talking as he walked down the alley. "A few choice words at a heist had Kaito Kid scrambling to make contact and learn what the Hardys knew. They were playing with fire, but it was unclear just how much fire they knew about. He set up a meeting in order to warn them off. Unfortunately, somehow the details of the meeting got into the wrong hands, and as it happened the Hardys were running early. So was Kid, but not early enough. He was up there, on the roof," he said, pointing at the top of one of the buildings.

He stopped right in the middle of the side street and turned around. "The Hardys walked up this way. A man walked up the other way. They thought he was Kid in disguise. The man played this to his advantage, and questioned them. But Frank realized something was up really quickly. The man noticed that Frank was suspicious, and gave some sort of signal to his partner, who was here." Kaito then backed into a crevice, just large enough for a person, that ran between two buildings and met with the side street at a right angle. "The partner came out behind the Hardys with his gun out. He hit Frank, who was on the right, on the back of the head with the butt first, then swung to the side to hit Joe." Kaito, his hand in a finger gun, swept in an L shape to demonstrate how it had been done.

Nancy slowly walked forward, and knelt on the ground several feet in front of Kaito. She very nearly reached out. This was where Frank and Joe had fallen, one for good.

Kaito gave her a few minutes before continuing on. "Then the first man pulled a small, thin box from his coat. In the box were twelve pills and a small container of water. Your perfect murder is a poison, by the way. With his partner's help, he forced a pill down each throat. Then they left. As soon as they were gone Kid rappelled down, but it was too late. Joe Hardy managed to curse Kid before he passed out, thinking that Kid had betrayed them and that they had thought wrong about his loyalties. After..." Kaito's voice caught slightly, and he cleared his throat before continuing, "After it was over, Kid took Frank's phone and called an acquaintance. The acquaintance arrived, took Frank, and then Kid left."

Nancy closed her eyes and took several deep breaths. "So the perfect murder isn't foolproof."

"Damn near close enough. As far as I know, three people have survived out of your dozens of people and probably dozens of lab rats. And it's not like it doesn't have its own little special effect on those who do survive."

"So Frank's in a hospital somewhere?"

"No. Since his body wasn't found with his brother's, the men who tried to kill him are on full alert for the slightest trace. The police aren't the only ones looking. He's hidden in a very safe place, don't worry."

"With Kid's acquaintance, right? I want to see him."

Kaito shook his head. "I'm sorry, that can't happen. It would put you in far more danger than you're in right now, and would spill the secrets of too many people."

Nancy smiled kindly. "The whole thing probably shook Kid up, didn't it? I wasn't even there and I'm close to tears."

Kaito cocked his head and adopted a crooked grin. "Yeah, just a bit."

Nancy stood up and stepped forward. "Kuroba-kun, I'm going to find Frank. I'm going to find him whether you help me or not because I promised his father, I promised myself, and I promised Joe, wherever he is, that I would. You've helped me so much when you really didn't need to, even at risk to yourself."

Kaito's smile became a little more real. "You saw through me in ways Hakuba'd never managed. I had no doubt that you'd corner me eventually. And of course I heard your entire conversation with him. You know far more than is safe to know just putting together other people's pieces. Warning you off sooner rather than later seemed a good idea."

"It's not going to work." Nancy started wandering in small circles, eyes to the ground. "Where was the watch found?"

"I don't know, Kid didn't see it."

"Because see, that's the only part that still doesn't make perfect sense. If it's a message from Frank that he's alive, then he was conscious enough to think of leaving the message, so why then hasn't he made contact in some way? And your acquaintance seems to like his privacy, so why would he leave the message? And you didn't know about it. So what does it mean?"

"Are you trying to demonstrate something to me?"

"If you're getting, 'Nancy Drew is not leaving this case alone,' from it, then yes."

Kaito sighed. "I'll contact my acquaintance, see if I can set anything up. But if he says no, that's it, understood? No more freebies from me, since it's obviously having the reverse of the desired effect."

Nancy reached into her pocket and pulled out the deactivated bug. "By the way, you want this back?"

Kaito shook his hand at it. "No, you keep it on you. If you get into any trouble, just turn it back on since you've obviously figured out how. I've got recorders on standby 24-7, and I'm often listening in. I'll be able to send help if it sounds suspicious."

And then Kuroba Kaito turned around and left, leaving Nancy alone in the side street. She only stayed there for a few more minutes, knowing that the police had already gleaned all that they could from the area.

* * *

**Reviews are adored! Merry Christmas!**


	3. The Dénouement

**Disclaimer: I don't own Nancy Drew, Detective Conan, the Hardy Boys, or Magic Kaito. Phew that's a lot.**

**Another nice long... really long... chapter. I really try not to have them this long, but the last line break before the end is on the third page, and that's too short. That's right, six pages of non-stop action. Sort of.**

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* * *

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The 'dozens of bodies' theory as it turned out held weight. Rather a lot of it. Nancy was soon called into the police station so that they could go over what they'd found with her. In the same room that they'd met in before, she was shown several profiles of other people who had died for no apparent reason.

"Hayashibara Nana, 36, private investigator. Ishikawa Jiro, 57, politician. Okumoto Hikaru, 21, convenience store shift manager. The list goes on." Inspector Megure stated. "Sixteen bodies in all, though it seems probable that even after we've asked, police departments are still holding out on us. It's rather surprising that this hasn't come to light before, because several of the victims are very nearly considered the rich and famous. Other than that for the most part they're the kind of people who, if anyone, would die a mysterious death, like Hayashibara Nana. Okumoto Hikaru, considering the company he's keeping in death, is an anomaly.

"We're trying our hardest to keep this under wraps. Very few people outside this room know about it. Clearly this is big, bigger than we'd thought. This isn't just a boy dying and another disappearing under mysterious circumstances, this is mass murder on a grand scale. And if your theory is completely correct, these people are responsible for even more, seemingly normal deaths."

"I've informed a few of my most trusted men that we need to talk to Kid, though I haven't told them why," Inspector Nakamori butted in. "Kid being involved in this goes against everything I know about him. If there's trouble, he's always gone out of his way to save someone. Clearly we need him to tell us how he's connected, because it's too complicated for us to guess at. I've told them that if they corner Kid on their own, not to jump him but to tell him that he needs to contact me."

"Nancy, we're pulling you out," Fenton Hardy stated. "This is too dangerous for you. What little you've done so far is marvelous, but I can't let you continue. I'm sending you back to the States."

Nancy was ready for such a demand. "But Mr. Hardy, it would be suspicious. For me to show up for a week then leave suddenly? You might tip your hand that I was investigating. Wouldn't it be better for me to stay for at least a month?"

All of the adults in the room exchanged glances. But before anyone could say anything, the door to the meeting room suddenly opened and a small boy with large glasses bounced in. "Inspector Megure!" he chirped, far too cheerful. "Are you investigating a murder? Can I help?"

"Conan-kun!" Inspector Megure started.

But before anyone could stop him, Conan had run over to the table and jumped up on a spare chair. "Oh, are these people all dead? That's bad, really bad. I hope you catch who did it! But it says here you don't know how they died, isn't that strange?" Then Conan looked straight at Nancy. "That sounds like it could be dangerous. If these people could kill without leaving a trace, I'd be really scared if I were investigating them. I wouldn't want to investigate them at _all_."

Was Nancy imagining things, or had a little kid just warned her off the case?

At that moment the door opened a second time and a girl around Nancy's age looked in, angry. "Conan-kun!" She stormed over to where Conan was standing on the chair, followed by a darker-skinned boy the same age.

The boy looked sheepish. "Ran-neechan, heh heh."

"Don't bother Inspector Megure, I'm sure he's very busy." She then turned to Megure. "I'm sorry Inspector Megure, Hattori-kun was talking to me, and next thing I knew Conan-kun here had slipped off."

Megure waved her off. "It's okay Ran-kun, just get him out of here."

Ran started dragging Conan out the door. Before the door closed, Nancy saw a look pass between Conan and the teenage boy that she couldn't quite decipher.

Going back to what they were discussing before the interruption, Fenton Hardy spoke up. "Fine. Three more weeks, just so that it doesn't look suspicious, then it's back home for you. And no sleuthing."

"Yes Mr. Hardy." As if Nancy had any intention of _that_.

* * *

Kaito Kid's acquaintance it seemed was not interested in becoming Nancy's acquaintance. Kaito passed the word to her one morning after distracting Aoko. Nancy was a little frustrated, though she'd been going over what her next step would be if that were the case. Unfortunately she hadn't quite figured out what that next step would be, so until she knew she was unwillingly following Fenton Hardy's order to not sleuth.

She'd also taken to avoiding Hakuba again. He'd managed to corner her once, and ask her how her theory had panned out. She'd lied and said they hadn't told her, and when he asked if she'd managed to worm Kaito's secret out of him yet she'd lied about that too.

It was evening, and Nancy was doing her homework in her room, when the phone call came. She'd started at first when her phone buzzed and started wiggling across the desk, but then realized it was probably Aoko calling to ask if she wanted her to pick anything up for her at the store. "Hello, Nancy Drew speaking."

"_...Nancy?_"

Oh.

My.

God.

"..._Frank_?"

"_Nan, you have no idea how nice it is to hear your voice._"

"Frank! Where the hell have you been? Everyone's looking for you! What happened?"

"_Listen Nancy, we haven't got much time. I'm going to give you an address and I need you to get over here right away._"

"Why? Do you need me to break you out of somewhere? Is that why you haven't contacted anyone, you've been kidnapped?"

"_No! The people who're hiding me, they don't think you should be told. They don't know you like I do, they think if the trail's cold enough you'll give up and leave. But listen, you've got to come to 22 Beika right away. When you get here, go around the left side of the house. The third, at least I think it's the third, basement window will be open. Come in that way. Hurry._"

Then the line went dead. Nancy stared at her phone for several long moments. Frank. Frank had just called her. He was alive, and sounded just fine. It was Frank. Frank Goddamn Hardy.

Nancy didn't need to be told to hurry twice.

* * *

Nancy had the taxi drop her off at 21 Beika, just in case. The driver looked at her a little weird for wanting to be dropped off at such a clearly abandoned house, but Nancy ignored him. She stood in front of the gate staring at 21 Beika until the taxi was out of sight, then ran next door to 22 Beika. The lights in the modern house were off, but the gate was unlocked. Following Frank's instructions, Nancy went around the left side of the house and sure enough, the third basement window was open, and just wide enough for Nancy to slip through. Some light was coming out of it too. Looking through, Nancy saw that the light was from a computer monitor and a small, low-level lamp on the other side of the room.

"Frank?" she called out hesitantly. "Frank, are you there?"

"Nancy?" Frank's voice was loud and clear, but Nancy couldn't see where he was or tell where it was coming from.

"Frank, where are you? We've all been so worried about you, your dad's near enough working himself to death. You said we didn't have much time, so come on out and tell me what happened."

"Nancy, I didn't call you to tell you what happened, I called you to warn you off. You don't know what you're dealing with."

"Oh not you too. Everyone seems to think I can't handle myself, I swear it seemed like a little kid even told me to back off a couple days ago." At that, Frank started chuckling. This irritated Nancy. "Really! That many people have warned me off that I'm starting to imagine people are warning me off! Frank Hardy, if you don't come out and tell me what happened right now, I'm going to come in there and find you. And don't think I won't, this ground isn't the nicest thing to kneel on."

Frank didn't respond. "It's okay," Nancy tried again, far less irate. "I know that that poison does something to the victims, and you certainly sound sane enough. So come on out then, whatever it is it can't be that bad." Frank still didn't respond. "All right, I'm coming in," Nancy warned, and started to slide her foot through the open window.

She had just gotten both legs in, and was about to slide in the rest of the way, when the door, which had been cracked, opened further and a small boy entered the room. He was skinny and pale, though Nancy couldn't tell if that was just the low lighting talking, and he was holding something red up to his mouth. "Hello Nancy," Frank's voice said.

Nancy fell the rest of the way into the basement. Her rear complained in protest when it slammed into the table under the window and she winced. The boy dropped the red thing to the floor and ran forward. "Nancy, are you all right?" he asked, in a normal little boy voice.

Nancy blinked. "Yeah, I just... Frank?"

"Yeah."

Nancy stared long and hard at the boy. How could this boy be Frank Hardy? Frank Hardy was eighteen years old, like her, not... this. But the hair, the eyes, the shape of the face... that was all Frank. "Oh... my... god..."

Frank smiled a little. "Hey, hey, breathe. Don't want you passing out on me, we've got to get this over and done with before the others come back. They wouldn't be too happy to discover you here."

Nancy moved her legs so that she was sitting properly on the table, grasped the edge, and leaned forward to stare at Frank. "Frank Hardy, what the hell happened to you?"

"I don't honestly know myself," Frank responded. "Say what you will about Haibara-san, but her science is way beyond me."

"Haibara-san? Who's that?"

Frank shrugged. "I probably shouldn't say any more."

Now that they were closer, Nancy could tell that Frank's pallor was not just the low lighting. She knew that if he was reacting to the situation in any way like his father (and she had no doubt that he was), he was eating and sleeping only through force. And since it seemed like the people who were hiding him were keeping him in this house, he probably felt trapped and helpless too. Nancy slipped off the table, knelt, and pulled Frank into a hug. "Oh Frank." Frank hesitated, then returned the hug. Nancy realized how easy it would be to just carry him off, small as he was now. Frank started shaking, and Nancy let him do what he needed to do.

They stayed that way for several minutes. Finally Frank stopped shaking and slowly pulled back. "Sorry about that," Frank apologized, face still wet.

"Oh Frank. What's there to be sorry for? You could start bawling in the middle of a biker bar on Manly Street, Manlytown and no one would blame you, not a whit." Nancy could feel her own eyes tearing up. "How did you even know to call me?"

Frank glared at thin air, giving him a thoughtful look. "I overheard my oh so gracious hosts discussing what to do about you. Their plan is to point-blank ignore you and hope you go away. Other than the fact that the chance of that working is very small, I was tired of them making all the decisions for me."

"Why did you call me?" Nancy finally asked.

Frank took a while to answer that. "I could make up something about wanting to see how far you've gotten, or to ask you for help on something, but... that would be a lie. I think I really just wanted to hear a familiar voice."

Nancy of course had been spending a lot of time since she arrived in Japan thinking about how horrible everything must be for Frank. But she realized in that moment that all of the things her imagination had cooked up were nowhere near the truth. Frank had nearly died, and had survived the encounter only to discover that his little brother had not. And for the past few weeks he had been hiding in the home of a complete stranger, cut off from all that he knew, changed in a way that Nancy would never have believed were she not staring it in the face, and other, secretive people in control of his life as it rapidly spiraled out of control. Nancy was reminded that young men, in an unexpectedly loose sense of the term, sometimes needed comfort too, especially if Frank's tears were anything to go by. "Do you want to talk about everything? Or even just a small part of everything?"

As one the two of them moved over to the nearest wall and leaned against it, Nancy's arms still around Frank. "I thought... that Kid had betrayed us," Frank started. "But then they told me that he had called them to take me somewhere safe. I thought... I thought I was going to die. I mean yeah, I've been there before, but never so close. God I was a mess when I came to. Screaming and hollering and crying, trying to get out, get to Joe, I was convinced that they had to be lying. That if I could just _get_ to him, somehow he'd be fine, just fine, or like me, but still finer than... than..."

"Shhh, it's okay. I know," Nancy reassured. "You don't have to say."

Frank paused before speaking again. "I still can't believe they haven't killed him yet."

Nancy was confused now. "Who haven't killed who?"

"The people who did this. How haven't they killed Kid yet? The impression I've gotten is that everyone and their goldfish wants him unmasked, in a jail cell, or dead, so with the whole world against him, why is he still free?"

"What do you know about Kid?" Nancy asked. "How is he tied up in all of this? Why were you and Joe so anxious to meet with him?"

Frank laughed a little brokenly at that. "That's the thing, we had no idea. We'd noticed a sniper hanging around a heist and watched him for as long as we could. The next heist we kept our eyes open and spotted him again. Joe got lucky, overheard a few very suspicious words from a telephone conversation. And so the heist after that when we managed to corner Kid on the roof, we bluffed our hearts out. We were vague, but incorporated what we could of what Joe had overheard, and it worked. I couldn't believe it had worked. This whole mess? Curiosity, pure and simple."

Nancy stroked his hair soothingly. "We're detectives. It's an occupational hazard. We all know it."

"Is it though? We've gotten into trouble before, but never like this. We've always come out on top before. Now, even if everything suddenly started going right, we still wouldn't be on top. There's no way for us to end up on top from this, because there is no us anymore. There's just me. And I don't really think either of us realized just how much of an occupational hazard it was until it was too late. Until everything was already happening, had happened..." Frank's voice drifted off and he started staring into space, clearly reliving his own personal nightmare.

"Do you want me to distract you?" Nancy asked quickly.

"Yes please."

"What about Ekoda High School? How does that school fit in?"

Frank frowned at Nancy. "Ekoda High? What are you asking about Ekoda High for?"

Nancy frowned back. "You did say you wanted me to distract you. Why did you mention it when you called your dad?"

"It's the high school that Hakuba Saguru goes to, and we needed to talk to him to find out what he knows or suspects about Kid. We never did get around to it though. Why?"

Nancy couldn't help it; she started laughing. "Oh Frank, if you only knew what the wild goose chase you'd accidentally sent me on resulted in."

Frank went a little goggly-eyed. "Wait, Dad actually took that seriously?"

Nancy immediately stopped laughing. "Of course he took it seriously Frank. Joe was dead and you had vanished without a trace. The investigation was stalling horribly, he was going to follow every lead he had to the end of the earth to find you."

Frank flinched. Nancy stopped the topic immediately. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean..."

Frank shook his head. "No, I understand. Got to face up to it after all. It's just... it's so fresh..."

Nancy pulled him close. "I know Frank. I know."

There was an awkward, sad silence, until Frank interrupted it. "So what did Dad do?"

"He called me up and asked me if I would like to go undercover," Nancy explained. "You are looking at Ekoda High School's brand new exchange student."

"And I take it that resulted in something other than some chit-chat with Hakuba Saguru?"

Nancy nodded, grinning much like the Cheshire Cat. "Yeah, not very much though. Just being in the same class as Kaito Kid, that's all."

Frank's jaw dropped, and he was still for several minutes. "...You're joking," he finally insisted. "Either that or I've finally gone mad, and you actually said something completely different."

"Nope!" Nancy responded, popping the p. "Hakuba Saguru does have some very interesting theories about Kaito Kid, such as the one where he's one of his classmates. The fact that he's correct seems to do nothing for the slight laughingstock status he gets for it. That's how your hosts knew about me. Hakuba-kun told me, and I managed to get Kid to tell me what he knew about your disappearance. Since he was there when it all happened, it was rather a lot."

Frank stiffened, and started to pull away. "Wait, he was there? So he did betray us?"

Nancy shook her head quickly. "No, no, he was on the roof of one of the buildings. He couldn't intervene at all, it happened too fast. And it's tearing him apart, believe me. He's also lost a family member to these men, he knows what it's like."

"He has?"

Nancy nodded. "Kid disappeared for eight years. That was when his father died."

Frank smiled. "Wow Nancy, should've invited you here with us in the first place," he joked, trying to lighten the mood.

"We'll never know," Nancy replied, avoiding the fact that it had usually been Joe to lighten the mood before. "Anyway, I told Kid that I wanted to talk to you, and he said that he'd get in touch with your hosts and see if they would allow it. As you well know they didn't, and then you took matters into your own hands and here I am!"

"And here we are."

The main lights in the room suddenly flickered on, surprising Nancy and Frank. Standing in the doorway was an older man and two small children. It was the boy who had spoken. Nancy realized with a start that it was Conan, the boy who had seemed to be warning her off at the police station. "Frank, I warned you about this. You're only putting her in more danger."

Frank stood up and moved so that he was standing between Nancy and the other group. "Yeah? You don't know Nancy, and I do! I knew that she wasn't going to leave this alone, and that she would be in more danger if you just continued to let her charge in without knowing! This was for her protection!"

"You could have told me that you know."

"I tried, but every time I did Haibara-san was all, 'Oooh, danger danger! Mustn't let others know!' And you were too busy listening to her to listen to me! How did you even know Nancy was here in the first place?"

"Kid's got a bug on her."

Nancy frowned. "But I turned that off."

"The switch is a dummy. Don't worry, you're not the only one to fall for it. He heard your phone call with Frank and called me."

Nancy growled and, standing up, pulled the bug out of her pocket and crushed it under her foot. "Last time I trust anything _he_ says!"

Conan had the gall to smirk at that. "Yes, he does seem to have that effect on people, doesn't he?"

"Kudo-kun," the girl said quietly, tugging on the boy's sleeve.

Kudo. Now that was a name that was ringing a bell. It was the name on the nameplate of the house next door. And now that Nancy thought about it, it was the name of the not missing teenage detective that Detective Sato had mentioned. She smirked. "I get it. You're Kudo-kun the apparently not missing teenage detective who calls his girlfriend a lot. You live next door and are friendly with at least one of your neighbors, which is how the old man is involved. And you," she pointed at the girl, "Must be Haibara-san. I would say that you invented the perfect murder, but..."

"I'm on the good guys' side?" Haibara shrugged. "Times change. So do loyalties, for all sorts of reasons."

"You told people about your predicament," Frank shot at Kudo. "I don't see why I can't."

"I didn't tell them, they either figured it out for themselves or someone else told them," Kudo argued.

Nancy folded her arms. "Well now that I do know, you're going to tell me everything."

"No, we're not. You are going to go home and forget that this ever happened."

"I would say fat chance, but Fenton Hardy's sending me home in a little over two weeks anyway. You know that they know about whatever group of people is behind this, and he's decided that it's too dangerous for me. I only got the time I have because I argued that it would be suspicious to come and go so quickly. But even when I do go, there's no way I'm forgetting all this."

"The police know?" Haibara suddenly squeaked. She rounded on Kudo. "Why didn't you tell me about this?"

"I thought you didn't want to know about these things! You just want to live in a safe place with the problems of the world outside your lab!"

Nancy smirked. "Hmm, trouble in tiny paradise? Yeah the police know. The police know that someone's come up with the perfect murder that leaves no trace. They've also deduced that this someone would only use the perfect murder when other methods couldn't be used so as not the give the game away. The police know that some group is out there killing people, and they're investigating. What do you say to that?"

"Don't you see?" Kudo glared. "You've already messed things up enough. Now go home and forget!"

"What, it's a bad thing that the police know? I would think you would be jumping for joy that the police know without you getting involved, seeing how much you like staying in the shadows."

"Yes it's a bad thing! The police will investigate, the Organization will catch on, and then they'll all die! Every single one of them, and then they'll go after the person who kick-started the investigation, _you_!"

Oh, this was rich. Nancy just had to keep Kudo angry. "Organization, hmm? An organization big enough, or at least you think big enough, to slaughter a bunch of policemen without anyone catching on? Interesting."

Unfortunately this didn't further rile Kudo. "Do you care at all about your life and the lives of others?"

Just then, Nancy figured out what to do. "You like your privacy, right? You like no one knowing the truth and staying in the shadows. Since I don't know anything about you I can't make any jibes about how well or how not well that's been working for you, but I do know that that's your modus operandi, correct?" Kudo merely nodded, not giving anything away. "Then how's this: Fenton Hardy is very worried for Frank here. I would love to alleviate some of that worry. And now I know where Frank is and what happened to him.

"You tell me everything, or Fenton Hardy learns everything I know. And as you know, that's quite a lot," Nancy delivered her ultimatum.

Kudo sighed. "Let's go upstairs where it's more comfortable."

* * *

**They just talk and talk and talk. To be fair these words are entirely necessary, as Frank needs to explain a little and is in desperate need of comforting. Reviews are much adored!**


	4. The Explanation

**Disclaimer: I don't own Detective Conan, Magic Kaito, Nancy Drew, or the Hardy Boys.**

**Another chapter. Whilst writing this one I had an epiphany of awesome on how the plot is going to progress. Which is a good thing, because before it was going to have a really lame non-ending where Nancy just goes home. Laaammee.**

* * *

And so Nancy learned everything that Kudo Shinichi knew, and that was quite a lot. She was appreciating the fact that while she had known enough to use it as a bargaining chip, what she had known barely scratched the surface. Slaughter a bunch of policemen all at once with impunity? Yeah, she was starting to be a little less skeptical about that.

Frank saw her out. "So what are you going to do now?" Nancy asked.

Frank shrugged. "What I've been doing, I guess. Hide out here. I'll poke my nose out once things have died down I suppose, but other than that I guess I'm just hiding."

"You should call your dad," Nancy suggested.

"I can't. You know why I can't. He'll get killed."

Nancy sighed and crouched down so that she was level with Frank. "Frank, he'll die anyway. I wasn't kidding when I said your dad was working himself to death. He's going to find a trace of you or die trying. And even if you didn't call him and he went back to Bayport to pick up the pieces, what if the Organization discovers who you are? It seems like they'd kill him anyway, regardless of how much he may or may not know. And he's working with the police here on their perfect murder case, if the Organization decides to kill everyone involved in that then that includes him. He's in danger whether you call him or not. And you don't even have to really tell him anything. Just that you're safe but hiding, and can't come home just yet. It'll make him much happier."

Frank took a deep breath. "I'll think about it. Bye Nancy. And... thanks for everything."

Nancy smiled. "Anytime. You ever need someone to talk to, you call me, alright?"

Frank nodded. "Alright."

* * *

Nancy was called by Fenton Hardy no later than two days after. "_You knew,_" he hissed, irate.

"Knew what?" Nancy asked, though she had an inkling. Good for Frank.

"_You knew that Frank was alive, but you didn't tell me! Damn it Nancy, why didn't you tell me?_"

"Did Frank tell you why he hasn't called you?"

"_Yeah, he said he was hiding out at some place until things died down, because he'd bitten off more than he could chew and now someone was after his life. The same person who had killed Joe. How did you figure it out Nancy?_"

Nancy decided to answer his previous question instead. "I didn't tell you that I knew Frank was alive because the people who are hiding him are very secretive. They made me promise that I wouldn't tell anyone in exchange for letting me to see him," she lied. "I did encourage Frank to call you though."

She could hear Fenton sigh on the other end. "_Thank you for that Nancy. I'm still mad that you didn't tell me, but... thank you. Very much. There are some things I still don't understand, but you've done this old man a great favor._"

"You're not that old."

"_I've felt it though. And I think I'll still feel it yet before my time. It'll be hard bury... burying Joe without Frank there. He said that he can't even come to the funeral. What kind of trouble could he get into that it isn't even safe halfway around the world? Do you know?_"

"Sorry, no," Nancy lied again, feeling more than a little guilty.

"_Well... thanks again, Nancy. For everything._"

* * *

If Nancy had thought that all, or at least her part in all, was over and done with, she was wrong. A day after the phone call from Fenton, she received a text message from the subject of the previous phone call, one Frank Hardy, Biter of Large Problems. Confused and curious, she followed the directions in the text to the letter.

Considering that these directions were to make haste to the police station at a specified time, this was not hard. Fenton Hardy, Inspector Nakamori, Inspector Megure, and Inspector Megure's underlings were surprised to see her. She however was not surprised to find them all in one place, assuming that Frank had sent word to them as well.

Fenton frowned at her. "Nancy, what are you doing here?"

"I still don't see why I have to be here," Inspector Nakamori grumbled. "I've got a heist to prepare for this evening, I'm busy."

Inspector Megure also frowned. "Yes Nancy-san, what are you doing here? Kudo-kun shouldn't know that you're on the case. Kudo-kun shouldn't even know about this case in the first place, which makes me wonder how he's solved it."

"Kudo-kun?" How come they had gotten a message from Kudo, but she had gotten one from Frank?

The door to the meeting room, which Nancy had closed, suddenly opened behind her. She turned and saw, to her surprise, a full sized version of Kudo Shinichi. He wasn't hard to recognize, since she'd done her research after that meeting at Agasa Hiroshi's house, but she was shocked to see him in full form. "Long time no see Inspector Megure," Kudo greeted. "Glad you could meet with me."

Inspector Megure stood up. "Kudo-kun, what is the meaning of this? How do you even know about this case?"

Kudo didn't answer. To be fair, he didn't get much of a chance. Frank Hardy walked into the room behind him, shut the door, and lowered the hood of his jacket. The effect on those attending was instantaneous.

"_Frank!_"

Fenton Hardy's cry was strangled and abrupt, as if he wasn't quite sure if what he was seeing was real. His chair rocketed backward with a clatter as Fenton stood up, vaulted over the conference room table, and enveloped Frank in a bone-crushing hug.

By this point, Nancy was more than a little confused. Weren't Frank and Kudo stuck in their little forms?

Fenton, knowing not of such things, had no such thoughts. "Oh god Frank, we thought... but what... when they called us about Joe... so worried... and then you wouldn't say anything... hiding from us... where the hell have you been?"

Despite no longer being able to string words into a proper sentence, Fenton Hardy's meaning was perfectly clear. "Missed you too Dad," Frank said in reply, returning the hug.

Inspector Megure, whose attention had been taken by Frank, turned his eyes back on Kudo. "What is the meaning of this? Explain."

"If everyone sits down I will," Kudo stated.

There was a slight holdup to this demand when it became clear that Fenton was not keen on letting go of Frank. Eventually everyone made it to a seat however, Fenton and Frank's right up next to each other and Fenton keeping a possessive arm on Frank. Kudo weaved his fingers together and began to talk once everyone had settled down. "The reason I've called you all here today is because you are all working on what I've been told is being referred to alternatively as the 'dozens of bodies' case and the 'perfect murder' case, a case that the existence of which was kick-started by Nancy-san here. A case that I myself have been working on for far longer than the police have been aware of it."

"Whoever it is has made an attempt on your life as well?" Detective Sato asked. Kudo nodded.

"That's why no one's been able to contact you," Inspector Megure mused.

Kudo nodded again. "This is all correct."

"Why didn't you get help?" Detective Takagi, the one who seemed to be in some sort of relationship with Detective Sato, asked.

"At first I was uncertain just how big the group behind this case is, and did not want to risk the possibility of them having someone on the police force somewhere. The simple fact is I did not know who to trust. This investigation coming into being on its own and lasting this long is something I take to be a very good indicator that everyone in this room is trustworthy. I've since gotten a better idea of the size of the group of course, but overall that hasn't been a good thing. Their trail for the most part variates between cold and very cold, and while I've made some progress it's taken me a very long time as you can probably guess."

"I don't suppose you could enlighten us on how Kid's involved? Because all this possibility that he's tied up with murderers is getting on my nerves," Inspector Nakamori complained.

"Simple," Kudo said, brightening slightly at the not particularly dangerous contents of the question. "He was there when they tried to kill Frank-san. And he knew that I was investigating them, so he called me using Frank-san's cellphone and I came running. Frank-san has been hiding with me since then."

"Okay, that I kind of understand, but he was involved before that. How?"

"We're not actually sure," Frank spoke up, surprising everyone. "At a heist, Joe... well, he saw a sniper and overheard part of a phone conversation. We somehow managed to arrange a meeting with Kid, but then two unknown men arrived to kill us before Kid appeared on the scene."

"Do you think Kid may have betrayed you?" Inspector Shiratori asked.

"If he had done that, then why would he have called me afterwards?" Kudo shot back. "At any rate, while Kid is involved in this somehow, we don't know how and at the moment it's not the most important thing. Back to the topic at hand, I came here for a reason. Like I said, the fact that this investigation has existed for so long is as close to undeniable proof that none of you are in league with them as I'm going to get. So I'm here with a warning. These men are dangerous. You must tell no one of this. None of this is to leave this room, ever. You've all gotten a glimpse of what they can do."

"Kudo-kun," Inspector Megure warned, "Don't you dare think you can tell us not to investigate. We're not children, we know what we're doing."

Kudo chuckled a little at that. "Oh I understand completely Inspector Megure. I'm only giving you a warning, that's all. It's not like I've been completely alone in this. The more allies the better. I'm merely warning you all to step cautiously."

"What can you tell us about them, whoever they are, Kudo-kun?" Detective Sato demanded.

Kudo took a deep breath. "You're not going to like this answer."

"You mean you've been investigating them for who knows how long and you don't know anything?" Detective Takagi asked.

"No, just that I'm not going to tell you very much of what I do know. I know things that any policeman, rash or not, would grab and run with. Things that would lead to that policeman getting killed. For your own safety, I won't be telling you these things."

Detective Takagi stood right up, planted his hands on the table, and glared at Kudo. He was silent for several seconds as he tried to figure out just what he was going to say. "Kudo-kun, I appreciate your concern," he finally bit out, "But we volunteered for this job. Out of all of the professions in the world, we chose this one. We chose this one because we want to protect people and are brave enough to do it. We did not choose this job to be safe and comfortable, we chose this job in order to risk our lives for those who can't save themselves. And I will not sit here while you, who is still a minor may I remind you, dangle information that we can use to protect people in front of us."

"Takagi-kun's right," Inspector Megure informed Kudo. "I've always given you a certain amount of leeway in the past, but this time you're playing by my rules. And I'm not above an obstruction of justice charge in a case as serious as this."

"Inspector, have you not been listening to me?"

Inspector Nakamori's grin was slightly feral. "Oh I think he has been listening, quite clearly. After all, an obstruction of justice would bring this all out into the open. And you don't seem to want that, do you?"

Frank turned to Kudo. "How many people have blackmailed you over your insistence of keeping this all secret now? That's two in the past seven days, do they usually come this regularly or are you just having a bad week?"

"Blackmail is such an ugly word," Inspector Nakamori made a dismissing motion with his hand.

* * *

Over the course of the meeting, Kudo informed those in the room of almost everything he had previously told Nancy. He never once mentioned Haibara or her involvement, which made a little sense as he was also obviously hiding the small thing. There was of course the possibility that there were things he hadn't told Nancy in the first place, but Nancy appreciated his concern that one of the others would run off and do something stupid.

After the meeting however, a new problem arose: that of Frank Hardy. Namely, Fenton Hardy's unwillingness to let him out of his sight. Once this problem became apparent, Kudo sighed. "Well I was going to drop you off and then go off on my own. I suppose it can't hurt, as long as you keep your head down. Keep an eye on the time." And with that, surprisingly enough, he left the conference room.

Nancy put her hands on her hips. "You know, I was kind of expecting him to put up more of a fight about that."

"Forget that, hand me your phone Nan. I don't suppose anyone here knows the cell number of a Miss Mouri Ran, do they?" Nancy pulled out her phone and handed it to Frank, raising an eyebrow as she did so. "Someone should warn her that her boyfriend is on his way to sweep her off her feet," Frank explained with a mischievous grin.

Nancy half-heartedly tried to snatch her phone back. "Frank, leave them alone!"

As it turned out, half the people in the room knew Mouri Ran's number. Once Frank showed his hand however they were all at varying levels of unwillingness to give it. Reluctantly, Frank gave Nancy her phone back and Fenton started dragging him off so that they could have some father-son time.

Nancy would ask Frank how this was possible later. Right now, she'd just be butting in.

* * *

Naturally all of the excitement concerning Frank and related Evil Organization business had completely overshadowed the rest of the world. Which was why Nancy was actually surprised when she went back to the Nakamoris to discover Aoko making a sign. She belatedly remembered Inspector Nakamori referring to a heist before Frank and Kudo showed up. "Well I hope you have fun," Nancy told Aoko after Aoko clued Nancy in on everything she knew.

"Don't you want to come?" Aoko invited. "There's always a crowd."

Nancy thought. On the one hand, she might find something out. On the other hand, she already knew how to get a direct line to Kid. And she did have homework, which she needed to do regardless of the fact that she wasn't a normal student. "Nah. I'm intrigued, but I've still got some math problems to do. Tell me all about it when you get back, okay?"

Aoko nodded vehemently. "Of course. Who knows, maybe this will finally be the day my dad catches him."

"If you see him, tell him good luck from me."

"I will!"

Of course, the kind of luck Nancy was referring to and the kind of luck Aoko was thinking she was referring to was good luck for two completely different things, but Aoko didn't need to know that. Since it was coming from her, the Inspector would know what she meant.

Nancy went up to her room to work on homework.

* * *

The heist, according to Aoko, had been scheduled to start at precisely 7:11 pm. At ten o'clock Nancy decided to wait up for Aoko. At eleven, she started to get a little worried. She tried calling Aoko's cellphone, but it went to voicemail. Now really worried, she called Inspector Nakamori. It rang, and for a moment she was concerned that his cellphone would go to voicemail as well. At the last second it picked up. "_Inspector Nakamori. Talk fast, I'm busy._"

"Inspector, it's Nancy," she started, hoping that she wasn't about to add to his pile of problems. "It's just Aoko-san hasn't come home yet and isn't answering her phone. I was wondering if you know where she is?"

"_Oh, Nancy-san. I guess I should've called you earlier, you sound worried. Aoko won't be coming home tonight, she's in the hospital._"

"Hospital?" Nancy exclaimed. "Is it serious? What happened?"

"_No, thankfully it's not serious. But there was some shooting and she was caught in the crossfire, just grazed._"

"Do you think-?" Nancy started.

"_Yes._"

Nancy was grabbing her bag from the floor beside her before he'd finished speaking. "I'll be right down."

"_No! It's fine, really. Everything's under control, you're not needed. Aoko will be fine, and if you suddenly showed interest it'd be suspicious. You'll learn everything in the morning, I'm sure. Papers are like that._"

Nancy bit her lip. "If you say so."

"_I do. Now go to bed, it's late._"

As soon as the line had been cut, Nancy murmured, "Hypocrite," to the unlistening handset.

* * *

The paper the next morning was distressingly vague. They did not know who was shooting, how many people were shooting, who was shooting back, who was injured, if anyone was killed, how Kid was involved, etcetera etcetera etcetera. All they seemed to know for certain was that Kid got away with the jewel.

Kaito was walking stiffly when he met up with her on the way to school, and he refrained from the usual magic, though he was bearing the usual smile. Nancy had started to wonder if he ever _didn't_ smile. "I heard there was some shooting at the heist last night," she started.

"Yeah, I did too."

"Apparently Aoko-san was caught in it. It's just a graze though, she'll be just fine."

"Good."

Kaito's monosyllabic nature this morning was not matching his smile, and Nancy started to grow concerned. "Do you know if Kid was injured as well?"

"Yeah, I hear he was, but not as bad as Aoko."

Nancy blinked several times. This conversation suddenly didn't make sense anymore. "What happened?" she outright asked.

"I don't know, I wasn't there."

Nancy raised an eyebrow and glared at him. "Kuroba-kun..." she warned.

"What?"

"If you don't tell me, I'm going to have to ask Inspector Nakamori."

Kaito's smile suddenly changed somehow, but without actually moving. "When you do, could you tell him that Kid might just be dead to the world now?"

Nancy stopped in her tracks. Then, spinning around, she proceeded towards the precinct, leaving a not quite confused Kaito behind.

* * *

**Go vague cliffies! Reviews are adored!**


	5. The Aftermath

**Disclaimer: I don't own Nancy Drew, the Hardy Boys, Magic Kaito, or Detective Conan. Phew that's getting tiring.**

**So i just finished the most depressing fic ever that makes this look like humorous fluff, so I had to start writing and get to what shall henceforth be known as The Most Heartwarming Part in This Entire Fic. Also known as Part Not-Appearing-In-This-Chapter. Don't worry, it's in the next one. Particularly observant, jumping-to-conclusions readers may be able to guess what it is.**

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* * *

**

The Inspector was surprised to see her. "I thought I told you not to come. You're not actually involved after all."

"Kid made me involved," Nancy replied curtly. "The paper was wonderfully vague, but I had an interesting conversation just a few minutes ago with a character of mutual acquaintance."

"Kid?" Inspector Nakamori's eyes looked like they wanted to pop out of their sockets. "What did he tell you? Did he say anything? Anything important?"

Nancy folded her arms. "You don't have everything under control, do you?" she asked drily.

Inspector Nakamori motioned towards her. "Come on. I've got something to show you."

Inspector Nakamori led Nancy through a few rooms to one where bagged evidence was laid out on a large table. Nakamori held up a large one, a bloodstained shirt. Nancy inhaled quickly when she recognized it as the one Aoko had been wearing. The Inspector wiggled it until a small hole on the left side became apparent. "What do you make of that?" Nancy could only stare. "From the position, it should've punctured a lung. And from the amount of blood on the shirt and at the scene, she probably should've died as well."

"But you said it was just a graze, nothing serious!" Nancy demanded.

"It is." Inspector Nakamori replied, sounding like he didn't believe his own words. He wiggled the shirt some more until a small rip on the side also became apparent. "This was the only mark on her."

Nancy's mind felt like it was going into overload. "Everything makes sense, but nothing makes sense! This is insane!"

Inspector Nakamori immediately set down the shirt and put his hands on Nancy's shoulder. "Nancy, what are you talking about? What do you mean?"

"Kid, when he spoke to me. I noticed that he was moving a little stiffly, so I asked him if he had been injured. He said he had been, but not as bad as Aoko-san. But that doesn't make sense if she had only been grazed. But if she hadn't only been grazed, it made perfect sense! But she'd only been grazed! But she hadn't only been grazed!"

"Nancy-san, breathe!"

Nancy paused, and suddenly had an epiphany. An impossible epiphany, but an epiphany nonetheless. "Wow. Inspector, this is going to sound completely insane, but it almost makes sense, in the way that none of this makes sense," she looked around to make sure no one was too close, then started whispering, "So we've already got a murder method that leaves no trace. People just die. And what's the opposite of death? Life. And we know Kid's involved in this perfect death thing. What if, and this is the really crazy part, Kid and these people are actively working against each other, and while the other guys have a perfect way to take life, Kid has a perfect way to give it?"

"Nancy-san, you're talking madness."

Nancy rubbed at her forehead. "I know it's insane and that I sound like a raving loon, but this whole big case belongs at a funny farm. And yeah, there are huge holes, like if Kid could bring people back to life why didn't he bring Joe back to life, but honestly, do you have any better ideas?"

"No," Inspector Nakamori admitted. "But Kid's a street magician, albeit an unconventional one, not a wizard. I'm sure there must be some sort of relatively plausible explanation for this, you'll see."

Nancy nodded, downhearted. "Oh, right. Kid also told me to tell you something."

"Oh?"

"He said to tell you that he might just be dead to the world now."

"And what the hell is that supposed to mean?"

The corner of Nancy's mouth quirked up wryly. "I think it means he's seriously considering putting away the costume."

"He'll be back," Inspector Nakamori dismissed. "He always does. Even eight years can't keep him away. He'll be back, you'll see."

Nancy wasn't so sure about that.

After the Inspector finally managed to shoo Nancy out of the station, she headed for the hospital that Aoko was at. She found Aoko dressed and about to leave, seeming very lively for someone who seemingly should be dead. "Wow, you seem ready to go," Nancy greeted, alerting Aoko to her presence.

"Nancy-san!" Aoko exclaimed. "Oh, I'm so sorry. You must've been worried."

"Yeah, rather. But you're fine, so everything'll be okay. But should you really be leaving already? You were shot."

"It was just a graze, like you said I'm fine." Aoko did seem to be favoring her side slightly, but Nancy had to agree that she otherwise seemed completely normal. Rather perfectly healthy. "More to the point, isn't school going on right now? What are you doing here?"

Nancy grinned. "I was worried, so I'm playing hooky."

"Funny. If anyone, I would've guessed it would be Kaito skipping." Aoko looked thoughtful, and perhaps a little whimsical. "Of course, maybe it's just because I'm thinking about him."

"Oh?" Nancy queried in a mock scandalized voice. She wasn't blind, after all. "And what set this off, may I ask?"

"I have a vague memory of him being with me, but it's silly," Aoko explained, sheepish. "He had work, after all. And it's so vague it was probably just a dream."

"Yeah, probably just a dream," Nancy agreed automatically. "So what happened?"

"Well, I was up on the roof," Aoko started as they left the hospital room. "I had been in the crowd outside with everybody else, but then I had to go to the bathroom so I went into the building to find one. And then..." her voice trailed off.

"Then what?" Nancy asked, eager to hear what had happened. When Aoko didn't respond at first Nancy looked over and saw that she was frowning. "Aoko? What's wrong?"

Aoko shook her head, suddenly smiling. "Nothing's wrong! Well, other than the obvious of course. Anyway, after I went to the bathroom I somehow ended up on the roof, and there was some shooting going on. So I ran and hid but a stray bullet caught me. After a while the shooting stopped and I came out and it seemed like everything was over."

Nancy couldn't help but notice the giant, gaping hole in Aoko's story. She looked over at her in worry, Aoko oblivious as she started talking about normal, random things. How did she end up on the roof? What had happened up there on the roof that Aoko wasn't saying? And was Aoko not saying anything by choice or because she truly didn't know? Nancy had come to know Aoko as unfailingly honest and loyal to her friends. Was the loyalty getting in the way of the honesty? But if it was then why would she mention a memory of Kaito at all? She also seemed far too cheerful for someone who had just discovered an ugly truth. To be fair, she was also entirely too cheerful for someone who had just been shot, but Nancy knew that that was just Aoko.

* * *

Nancy saw Aoko home, but as much as she tried to argue Aoko insisted that she'd be fine without her and that Nancy go to school. Finally Nancy gave in and left the house, but as soon as she was out of sight she called Agasa Hiroshi's house. The older man picked up the phone as she expected. "_Hello, Agasa residence, this is Professor Agasa speaking._"

"Hello Professor Agasa, this is Nancy Drew."

"_Oh, Nancy-san. How can I help you?_"

"I was wondering if I could talk to Frank please?"

"_Just a minute, I'll go find him._"

Nancy waited patiently. "_Hey Nancy,_" Frank's voice came on the other end.

"Hi Frank. Hey, what was with that stunt yesterday? I thought it wasn't even possible."

"_Not so impossible as you were led to believe. It's only a temporary cure though, 48 hours. Tomorrow morning the fairy scientist waves her magic test tube and I turn back into Cinderfrank._"

Nancy chuckled. "So you're still... you-sized?"

"_Yep._"

Nancy bit her lip. "Then why are you hiding at Professor Agasa's?" she asked hesitantly.

"_Because I'm still in danger. And when I'm big, they might actually recognize me._"

"Is Kudo following his own rules?"

"_...No._"

"Then why are you? If you're still big, you should be spending time with your dad while you still can. You don't know when you'll be able to see him in person again." Frank didn't respond. Realization dawned on Nancy. "Oohh. This is about him, isn't it?"

"_You should've seen him Nancy, last night when I had to bow out. Kept demanding to know why, where I was staying, why I couldn't just stay with him and go back to Bayport, what I was still hiding._"

"He doesn't miss a trick, does he?" Nancy responded. "So? Why didn't you?"

"_Why didn't I what?_"

"Stay with him. You have until tomorrow morning after all."

"_Honestly Nan?_"

"Honesty does seem to be in short supply 'round these parts."

"_I think if I had stayed any longer, I wouldn't have been able to leave when I had to, and would've ended up spilling everything to him._"

"Would that have been so bad?"

"_You've only seen Kudo being polite. Trust me, he is _not_ happy about how things have been going down lately. I think if my dad learned absolutely everything, that would knock that one last screw just loose enough for him to go completely apeshit over the entire thing. And I've been heartily assured that an apeshit Kudo is not a good thing._"

Nancy laughed. "Well I suppose we'll have to try to avoid that. What about me? Am I off limits and in danger of tempting you home?"

"_Ooh, I'll have to think on that one,_" Frank joked. "_What would I do without you?_"

"Set up questionable meetings in alleyways and get poisoned?" Nancy suggested. "Hey, did you hear about the heist last night?"

"_That there was one, yes. Beyond that, not much. Which is surprising because I haven't had much else to do other than absorb the news._"

"Well from what I hear it was a pretty exciting heist. In fact, so interesting that it might even be relevant to our case. Since it doesn't sound like you have anything better to do..."

Frank cut Nancy off. "_You want to meet up and discuss it? Okay!_"

"Cabin fever?" Nancy asked.

"_Like you would not believe. Concurring with popular belief, Haibara Ai is a very creepy person. Also has a bit of a sadistic streak. How about the Café Poirot?_"

"Cute," Nancy commented on the name.

"_Tell me about it. Perfect meeting place, considering the circumstances. Here, I'll tell you where it is._"

* * *

Nancy looked up at the windows a level above Café Poirot. She laughed sarcastically to herself before walking in. Frank waved at her from a corner table. "You did this on purpose, didn't you?" she asked snarkily as she sat down.

Frank gave her a 'who, me?' look and shrugged. "Hey, the name fits the mood. And if Kudo just happens to see us, then what can I say?"

"It seems rather like you _want_ to give Kudo an aneurysm."

"He's not my favorite person in the world right now, no. I mean yeah, I can appreciate where he's coming from, but he seems a bit 'utopia justifies the means' to me. To be fair it's actually 'life justifies the means', but he's still living while he's got his life. Me, not so much. Anyway, give me the lowdown. What precisely happened at the heist that's so interesting?"

Before Nancy could respond, the waitress walked up to take their orders. It being around lunchtime now, they both ordered sandwiches and coffee. As soon as she was gone, Nancy started talking. "The thing is I don't really know, and that's what's bothering me."

"You mean that's what's tickling your interest," Frank pointed out. "Admit it Nancy. You can't not figure out what's going on at any given moment."

Nancy laughed. "I suppose so."

"So you weren't at the heist yourself?"

"No. But as you know, I'm staying with the Nakamoris, so I got the whole lowdown before the heist."

"Not so much after I take it?"

Nancy sighed. "Inspector Nakamori has no idea what happened, and it frightens him. He couldn't even to begin to explain what he did tell me, and it's got him running scared."

Frank raised an eyebrow. "Inspector Nakamori never seemed like the kind of guy to scare easily to me."

"Of normal things? No. Impossible things and Aoko-san? Definitely."

"Aoko-san? I've met her a few times. She's a nice girl. A bit temperamental, but nice."

"Temperamental but nice, and currently in the middle of a mess even less coherent than yours."

"Hey, my mess isn't incoherent, just complicated. It's perfectly coherent once you understand everything. What's wrong with Aoko-san?"

"She's been shot for starters." At Frank's alarmed look Nancy quickly explained. "It was just a graze, she's fine. They even let her out of the hospital, she's at home taking it easy right now. But yes, apparently there was shooting at the heist. Probably our friend whom Joe overheard."

Frank frowned. "That's funny. We had seen that man of course, but there was never any shooting at the heists we were at. Why would they start now all of a sudden?"

Nancy shrugged. "Your guess is as good as mine, but that's not the part I'm hung up on."

"Yeah, shooting people isn't impossible, and you mentioned impossible. Go on, tell me the impossible bit."

At that precise moment they were interrupted by their food. Nancy could almost hear Frank cursing the waitress's ill timing in his head and smiled at the thought. As soon as the waitress was out of hearing range however Frank fixed Nancy with an expectant look to put a begging dog who fully expected to be indulged to shame. Nancy laughed. "All right, all right. You really have been bored, haven't you?"

"If Nancy Drew calls something impossible, then I am in. Excitement and mystery is sure to be just around the corner!"

Nancy made a noise. "Talk about mystery. Aoko's been shot once, and it was just a minor graze. So..." Nancy dragged off.

"So?"

Nancy fixed Frank with a look. "So what's her shirt doing with two bullet holes and covered in blood? And I don't just mean a few stray splatters, someone died on that shirt."

Frank replied slowly, clearly just waiting for her to say 'but'. "The second hole was right on the edge and just missed her, and the blood was from someone else? Why are you pointing at your chest?"

"The extra hole was here."

"But the only wound was...?"

Nancy pointed at her side. "Here."

Frank whistled lowly. "Wow. Impossible, huh? I bet that doesn't stop you from having a few theories."

"Inspector Nakamori very nearly laughed me out of the station. Basically the gist of it is that Kid can bring people back to life. Even I think it's crazy, and I came up with it."

Frank sipped at his coffee, not saying anything about Nancy's theory. "What does Aoko-san say happened?"

"I was wondering when you were going to ask that. She doesn't say anything."

Frank frowned. "She's holding out? Doesn't seem like what I know of her."

"I agree! In fact, if anything I'd say she doesn't remember what happened."

"Oh?"

"When I questioned her, she said that she'd been outside in the crowd before she went into the building to find a bathroom. Then she was on the roof and there was shooting going on so she hid. A stray bullet caught her, she waited, and then after the shooting had died down she came out. She'd skipped over between the bathroom and the roof entirely."

Frank adopted a thinking pose. "That is strange. Security cameras?"

"Kid disabled them all."

"Great. Trust him to make a mess of things. Maybe Kid knows what happened. Even if he doesn't, we really need to find out about that sniper stalker of his and how he's connected to the Organization. You have a way to contact him, have you talked to him yet?"

Nancy shook her head. "No, I haven't had a chance. There was that meeting yesterday, and now this heist business, and before that I was having trouble getting him alone."

Frank groaned. "Nancy, we need those answers from Kid. They could be vital. I don't care how you get them, just do."

"I know Frank. This case means a lot to all of us, I know. I'll ask him, okay? Have faith."

Frank started to look at his wrist, then stopped. "Damn. I keep forgetting that I lost my watch."

Nancy smiled. "That watch sent me in so many circles. I can't believe I'd forgotten about it until you just mentioned it."

"Yeah. Maybe I could stop by the police station some time today and get it back."

"Probably not. Still evidence in an unsolved crime after all."

"You're probably right. How did a watch send you in circles anyway?"

Nancy grinned. "Why the band of course!"

"The band?"

"It was clasped, so I thought it couldn't just have broken or fallen off. So I thought it was a message from you. And so I spent so much time trying to figure out what the nonexistent message was."

"When in reality it really had just fallen off my wrist," Frank finished with a grin. "It's just that my wrist was much smaller than it usually is. Poor Nancy, she just couldn't crack the case of the clasped watchband."

"Frank! You wouldn't have been able to either! And I did solve the case, just not through the clasped watchband avenue."

They continued to chat about nonsensical things for the rest of lunch. Nancy enjoyed being in Frank's company, something she had never really gotten quite enough of. The lingering shadows in Frank's eyes were a constant reminder that their time was limited, and that they would never be the sleuthing trio that they had sometimes been before again, but she was thankful for what she had and the chance to do something about what she didn't.

* * *

Unfortunately because of whatever bit of insanity had happened at the heist, Kaito and Aoko were now far closer than Nancy had ever seen them before. Whatever dream or vague notion of Kaito that Aoko had had, she was now sticking to him like glue, but not in a temperamental best friend kind of way. Rather the vibe that Nancy was getting was that Aoko, consciously or not, considered Kaito a beloved protector. Kaito was definitely aiding the vibe, helping Aoko whenever she seemed to have the slightest trouble with anything, hovering worriedly, and otherwise acting as if she could shatter at any moment. The simple fact that he was point-blank unwilling to move five feet from her except under certain circumstances meant that Nancy simply could not question him on what happened at the heist.

She tried alternate routes of course. Hakuba Saguru however knew very little other than what Nancy knew. The heist had started out normal, and then Kid had gassed him and shoved him in a closet with a note stating that things would probably get ugly, and that he didn't want 'tantei-san' to get hurt, indicating that he guessed that his sniper stalkers would make a move that night. He had been let out after a passing officer heard his thumps, but by that time the majority of the action was over.

One thing they did discuss was Kaito's sudden friendship, for lack of a better word, with Koizumi Akako. This surprised the both of them. Kaito spent her entire first day back with Aoko, but the second day he detached himself for about fifteen minutes during lunch to go off somewhere with Akako. Two days later, another fifteen minutes during lunch. As the week passed Kaito and Akako spent more and more time together, confusing the entire class. After all, it was no secret that Kaito didn't trust Akako for some reason or another. Nancy had of course asked around about that, but no one seemed to know why.

And so Nancy was stuck in another dead end in another impossible case that may be connected to the first impossible case. But circumstances had conspired to help her out last time. Perhaps they would do the same this time.

* * *

**Mwahahah! So I've left several hints as to what happened at the heist. Now I'm going to run off and write T.M.H.P.I.T.E.F. Reviews are absolutely loved!**


	6. The Unexpected

**Disclaimer: I don't own Nancy Drew, the Hardy Boys, Detective Conan, or Magic Kaito.**

**So... I don't really like the middle part of this chapter. Conan is a complete and utter magnificent bastard, and Nancy cusses him out. Er, yeah. And I feel like the first part could be better, even though it is pretty awesome. Love the last part though, absolutely love it. I'll stop telling you what I think now so you can form your own opinions.**

* * *

Nancy fumed as she stalked down the halls of the police precinct. Inspector Megure and his underlings were taking their duty of keeping her out of danger annoyingly seriously. For all she knew the investigation had made leaps and bounds, but were they telling her? No.

She paused in her stalking as she caught a flash of red light in the corner of her eye. She turned as another brief flash caught her attention. This time she saw that it was coming from under the door to the morgue. Frowning and curious as to what could be causing such a light, Nancy slowly walked forward. As she got closer she could hear faint noises coming from the morgue as well.

Nancy's frown deepened. She knew that the mortician on duty at the moment usually took a break right about now. Slowly she turned the handle and inched open the door, peeking in secretively. Before she could take note of what she was seeing, there was another red flash. Nancy quickly glanced away, then looked back.

Whatever she had expected to see, it wasn't this.

Two people in uniform stood around a table with a body on it. One of the drawers nearby was open, indicating where the body had come from. The man held something in a gloved hand over the corpse's mouth while the woman quietly chanted something completely incomprehensible to Nancy.

There was another red flash, and Nancy watched this time. Something dripped from the gloved hand on to the corpse and it twitched momentarily. The brief movement caused Nancy to see that the body was blond. And how many blond bodies were there in any given Japanese morgue? Not many, Nancy guessed. Whoever these people were, they were doing something to Joe's body. And Nancy could not let that happen, whatever 'that' was. She stepped fully into the morgue, letting the door shut behind her. "Hey, you two. Stop what you're doing!"

The woman didn't look away from Joe, too focused on her chanting, but the man glanced briefly at her. Nancy unfortunately got absolutely nothing from this. He was middle-aged, with one of the most forgetful faces Nancy had ever seen. The kind of person one saw in a crowd and then promptly forgot about. Nancy glared and started forward, but he suddenly held up a finger of his ungloved hand, indicating for her to wait. Nancy didn't let it get to her though. "I demand an explanation for what you're doing!"

She walked forward until she could see Joe clearly, then stopped still at the sight of him. He wasn't the pale corpse she'd last seen him as. He was still quite clearly dead, but there was something distinctly not dead about him. The head wound was smaller than Nancy remembered, and if she didn't know better she'd almost say there was color in his cheeks.

More liquid dripped from whatever the gloved hand was holding tight into Joe's mouth. Nancy saw that the liquid was also red. As the liquid dripped into his mouth the head wound shrunk even more, and Nancy's jaw dropped. How was this even possible?

She could not find it in herself to interfere after that. She merely watched as the liquid dripped, the head wound vanished entirely, and the life seemed to return. Until finally, after what seemed like hours but was really only minutes, Joe made a small choking noise on one of the droplets.

The man quickly put whatever he was holding, glove and all, into a jar on the table next to him and screwed the lid on tight. The woman finally stopped chanting and looked at Nancy, and Nancy felt like she should recognize her but didn't. "Who are you two?" Nancy asked breathlessly.

"You know who we are," the man answered in a familiar voice and with an almost familiar grin.

"Kid," Nancy stated. "Then... what was that?"

"A secret that you don't need to know about."

Nancy reached out and grabbed his sleeve. "Aoko-san did die, didn't she?" Kid didn't respond. "And then you saved her with... whatever it is you've got there. But if you were planning on it, why didn't you bring Joe back in the first place? Why wait so long?"

"Simple," Kid responded, extracting his sleeve from Nancy's firm grip. "I couldn't. After that, I wanted to get some advice to make sure I really knew just what forces of nature I was messing with."

"The heist?" Nancy guessed. Kid nodded. She glanced back at Joe, who was now breathing shallowly. "What do I tell the others?"

Kid grinned. "Tell them that Joe Hardy has magically come back to life and that you have no idea how. Now my companion and I really must be going." And with that, he and the woman slipped out the door, leaving Nancy behind.

Nancy's attention was drawn away from the door by a hoarse noise, that of unused vocal chords. She quickly rushed back over to the side of the table and saw that Joe's eyes had cracked open. "Joe," she breathed. It was one thing to witness everything else, but this... this was beyond her and so completely miraculous.

"Nance... what're you... where'm I?" Joe rasped.

Nancy quickly looked around and spotted a pitcher of water and a small stack of paper cups in the corner. She strode over and filled a cup halfway before walking back and holding it to Joe's lips. "Drink," she commanded.

Joe did so, and before Nancy realized it the water in the cup was gone. "That's better," Joe said when he was finished. Then, to Nancy's surprise, he sat straight up, the sheet that had been lying on top of him falling to his waist.

"Hey, are you sure you should be sitting up like that?" Nancy worried.

"Why not?" Joe asked back. "I feel fine. Finer in fact than I've felt in a while."

Nancy couldn't help herself anymore. She dropped the paper cup to the ground and threw herself on Joe in the tightest hug she could. "Oh Joe!" she exclaimed, feeling tears prick at her eyes. She pressed her head up against his chest, to feel the warmth and the heartbeat and the not deadness emanating from it.

"Nancy, I just realized something."

"What Joe?"

"I'm naked and in a morgue."

"Okay."

"Nan, I'm _naked_. What would Ned say?"

Nancy finally realized what he was getting at. "Oh. Right." She finally let go of Joe and backed off, still staring. There weren't even any marks from the autopsy on his chest.

Joe fixed her with a serious look. "Nancy, why am I naked and in a morgue?"

Nancy remembered that Aoko didn't seem to remember dying and coming back. "What's the last thing you remember?" she started diplomatically.

Joe frowned. "I was in an alley with Frank waiting for Kid to show up. Then... nothing. Hey, where is Frank anyway?"

Nancy grimaced. "Not... here right now. Look, about the whole naked and in a morgue thing... Joe, I really really don't know how to put this, but... you've been dead. For over a month."

Joe slowly shook his head. "No I haven't."

"Yes you have. It's the end of July."

"Nancy, that's patently impossible. I can't have been dead for a month, that doesn't happen."

Nancy exhaled. "Believe me, during the month that you've been dead my definition of 'impossible' has shrunk rapidly."

"Nancy," Joe spoke slowly, "People don't die for a month and randomly come back to life. Go into a coma, yes. Die, no."

Nancy folded her arms and harrumphed. "Then perhaps you would like to explain why you're naked and in a morgue!"

"The world is playing a very strange, bizarre practical joke on me. What are you doing in Japan anyway Nancy? I am still in Japan, right?"

"Urgh!" Nancy nearly shouted. "Your father called me! He needed a teen to follow a lead that might lead them to where Frank was so he called me!"

Joe's serious level suddenly increased tenfold. "Where Frank was? Frank's missing?"

Nancy waved him off. "No, don't worry, we found him. He's fine, well, finer than you. Was finer than you. Now I'm not so sure."

Joe leaned forward. "What's wrong with him?" he demanded to know.

"Joe, sheet," Nancy reminded.

"Oh, right." Joe quickly repositioned the sheet that had been, and was now again, covering him. "Now tell me what happened to Frank."

Nancy was saved from answering by the mortician, who dropped his half eaten sandwich immediately upon opening the door. "Go get Fenton Hardy and Inspector Megure right away!" Nancy ordered him. He fled immediately.

She then reluctantly turned back to Joe, but didn't say anything. "Okay, so maybe I believe you a little tiny bit more about the whole dead thing than I did five seconds ago," he started, "But this whole not answering me about Frank thing is getting worrying."

"The two of you just... got into a little bit of trouble, that's all," Nancy shrugged.

"If anyone pops out of nowhere shouting something about a joke, I'm going to kill all of you." Joe paused, waiting for someone to do just that. "So a little bit of trouble that ended with me apparently dead? Nancy, where's Frank and what's happened to him?"

"He's just... hiding," Nancy didn't exactly lie. "Because what happened was that the group that's after Kid? Well they somehow heard about your meeting with Kid and crashed it before Kid could get there. So now Frank's hiding in case they decide to go after him again, that's all."

"So they tried to kill him," Joe stated.

"No!" Nancy answered too quickly. "Well yes, they tried to kill both of you. You actually died. Frank pulled through though, and now he's hiding, which is why he's not here."

"One last question then."

"Go ahead."

Joe fixed Nancy with a look. "If I was dead, how the hell am I suddenly not dead?"

"I have no idea," Nancy answered truthfully, for a certain value of truth.

At that precise moment Fenton Hardy charged into the morgue, followed closely by Detective Sato, Detective Takagi, the mortician, and Inspector Megure in that order. All five were gaping. Fenton staggered a few steps forward. "Joe?"

"So I hear from Nancy that I've been dead," Joe started the conversation with a frown. "Mind explaining?"

Fenton looked at Nancy, lost. "What?"

"I have no idea," Nancy repeated. "And Joe can't remember anything past going into that alley with Frank, so he doesn't know either."

Fenton ran forward and pulled Joe into a hug even tighter than Nancy's. "Joe! Don't you ever give us that kind of scare again. Don't you ever, _ever_ do that again!

"Oh, you mean die? Yeah, I'll try."

Fenton pulled back and stared at Joe. "It's you. Oh god it's really you!" He hugged his formerly dead son again.

"Hey, I don't suppose anyone has any clothes? It's just I'm kind of chilly."

Detective Takagi cleared his throat unobtrusively and looked at the floor. Fenton seemed to notice for the first time that Joe was only clad in a sheet. "Right. Let's do something about that, and then we can talk."

* * *

What ended up happening was that the police had Frank and Joe's luggage booked as evidence, so Joe just raided his own suitcase for something to wear. Then they moved to a meeting room and took turns filling Joe in on what had happened during his extended leave of life. Joe spent most of the time frowning, and Nancy could guess that he was thinking about Frank. Partway through Nancy felt her phone buzz in her pocket and excused herself. Once out in the hall she answered it. "Hello, Nancy Drew speaking."

"_Don't tell him_."

"Pardon?" Nancy asked, frowning. It was Kudo's voice.

"_Don't tell him anything_."

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Nancy responded, her mind running with what Kudo could be talking about and, going with the most obvious, how he found out.

"_You have every idea what I'm talking about. Don't tell the recently undeceased._"

"He's his _brother_. He has a right to know. How did you even find out so quickly anyway?"

"_Kid's not the only person with a penchant for throwing bugs around_."

Nancy quickly started searching her pockets. "You little rat!" she hissed.

"_It's not on you, it's on Kid._"

"You and Kid are utter bastards in a league all of your own," Nancy bit out, angry.

"_He can't know, it's too dangerous._"

"And likewise, are you even going to tell Frank that his brother's alive?"

"_No. He might do something rash_."

"I take back what I just said. You make Kid look like a damn saint."

"Who makes Kid look like a saint?"

Nancy jumped a mile and spun around. Joe was standing behind her with his hands shoved into his pockets. "Dad said that you're the only person who knows how to get into contact with Frank. So..." he dragged off, assuming that Nancy would understand.

Nancy did. She immediately disconnected her call with Kudo and grabbed Joe by the arm and started dragging him out. "Yep! Come with me. You're also probably going to meet the person who makes Kid look like a saint, so prepare yourself."

Once they were in a taxi headed for Beika, Nancy dialed Professor Agasa's. No one picked up. "Damn you Kudo," she muttered.

Joe looked at her worriedly. "What's going on?"

Nancy sighed. "The truth of the matter is, Frank hasn't had much choice over whether he hides or not. Kudo Shinichi... oh, you've heard of him?" Nancy asked at Joe's look of recognition. "Anyway, Kudo's been working on this case far longer than anyone."

"That's what they told me. Funny thing is, I also got the impression that one doesn't end up on this case on purpose, if you get what I mean."

"Resulting in Kudo being paranoid and manipulative about keeping his secrets," Nancy grumbled. "He's pretty much been keeping Frank locked up to protect his secret, and I understood that at first but this time he's gone too far. That phone call I was on that you interrupted? That was him. He'd found out about you somehow, and he didn't want me to tell you anything about Frank. Meanwhile, he's planning on not even telling Frank that you're alive, just in case that prompts Frank to try and break free from his control. Kudo Shinichi does not like variables he cannot control."

"You know, I had heard only good things about him before now. I'm quickly beginning to dislike him. I take it that we're going to Frank now then?"

"Yes, or at least where I know Frank was last. And you know what? I'm just pissed enough at Kudo for trying to pull that stunt to do this." And Nancy pulled out her phone again and dialed the number of Fenton Hardy. "Mr. Hardy? Hi, it's Nancy... Yeah, Joe's with me, don't worry. Yeah... Yeah, we're going to see Frank. Why don't you join us? Here, I'll give you the address." Nancy rattled off the address, and then cut the conversation. "Bit me, Kudo," she told the handset angrily.

Joe was staring at her. "Remind me never to get you really, really angry at me."

"Kudo's way of handling things has been irritating me ever since I ran into him," Nancy explained, "But planning on not telling Frank that you're alive? Crosses the line, big time." At the look on Joe's face, Nancy stopped. "Joe? What is it?"

"I've been dead for over a month," he said slowly.

"Yeah..."

Joe looked up at her. "I've been dead for over a month, and Frank's been going on without me. To Frank, I've been dead."

Nancy scooted over and put her arm around Joe's shoulders. "It's been hard on him, yeah. But he's holding up somehow. You're going to make everything loads better though, trust me."

Nancy barely paused to pay the taxi driver before charging towards the front door of Professor Agasa's house. She rang the the doorbell and, when no one answered, banged on the door impatiently. "Whoever's in there, open up! It's Nancy Drew!" She waited, then banged again. "Open up!"

"Don't break the door down," Joe commented. At the look that dawned on Nancy's face, he immediately wanted to take that back. "It was a joke! Don't break the door down Nancy, it wouldn't be ladylike!"

Instead Nancy grabbed the door handle and the door swung open. She stormed in, Joe reluctantly following. "Professor Agasa?" she called out. "Frank? I know someone must be here!"

There was the sound of muffled raised voices coming from the shut door to the basement. Nancy and Joe raised their eyebrows at each other before taking a few steps towards the door. Before they could get far however the door opened and Frank stumbled out after clearly having been running up the stairs. He glanced up, speaking before he really saw. "Nan... _Joe?_"

Both brothers stood stock still. Frank stared in abject awe, face in a gape that Nancy had never seen the likes of before. Joe, one foot up in a half-completed step, blinked several times as the leg slowly lowered to the floor.

"Kaito Kid?" Frank asked hesitantly, sounding disgusted.

"Not Kid Frank," Nancy answered.

"Not Kid Frank?" Joe repeated. "_Yes_ kid Frank. What the... just... _what?_"

Frank glared at Nancy. "Who the hell is this? Because this is just sick."

"Frank," Nancy said softly, "Remember what I said about Aoko-san getting shot but not? Should be dead but not?"

"Why is Frank small?" Joe butted in in a small, unsure voice.

"I think Kid was feeling guilty for not being able to help you guys out," Nancy continued, ignoring Joe for the moment. "So after he found... whatever it is he found, he decided to do what he could."

Joe could not take it any more, and grabbed the front of Nancy's shirt with one hand and pointed at Frank with the other. "Frank is small, why, tell me, now!"

Nancy gently removed Joe's grasp from her shirt. "It's part of the whole you dying but him pulling through thing."

Frank meanwhile had wandered over and started tugging on the hem of Joe's shirt. Joe started, and then started to crouch down. As soon as his face was close enough Frank reached up and tugged on a cheek, hard.

"OWW! What the hell was that?"

Frank had gone back into shock. "So... it really is him?"

"Took a lot longer to convince him of that, and we were even in the morgue," Nancy said, jabbing a thumb at Joe. "Frank, Joe," she pointed to each of them as she named them. "Got it? Freakish things have been going on, but that doesn't change this."

There was a moment of silence, then Joe broke out into a grin. "So, how'd you get into this mess, _little_ brother?"

Frank kicked Joe in the shin. Being physically seven years old, it did not have that much of an effect. "You say anything like that again and I'll-"

"You'll what?" Joe cut in, crouching. "Kick me again? Because in that case, I think I'll enjoy this."

Frank paused, and Nancy saw a million and one emotions flit through his eyes, all good. Frank beamed and threw himself at Joe in as big a hug as his little arms could manage. Joe returned the hug, laughing, and Frank joined in.

At that point the doorbell rang. "Just in time," Nancy stated, and headed for the entry.

"No!" Haibara Ai shouted, suddenly appearing from behind the door to the basement. "Don't let them in!"

Nancy glared at her. "I'll do what I want." She opened the front door to reveal Fenton Hardy. "Come in."

"Is this really where Frank's been hiding?" Fenton asked as he walked in. He stopped dead when he saw Frank and Joe.

Joe had stood up, taking Frank with him. "Hey, I can pick you up now!"

Frank of course had started wriggling as soon as this happened. "Put me down! Damn it Joe cut it out!"

"What?"

Frank stopped wiggling, and both of them stared at Fenton. "Hi Dad!" Joe chirped.

"Hi... Dad," Frank followed, making like an echo.

"_No!_"

Everyone's attention was suddenly drawn by Edogawa Conan standing in the still open doorway and shouting as Professor Agasa jogged up behind him. Conan rounded on Nancy. "I _told_ you, I _warned_ you-"

Nancy glared at him. "What you did was make me angry." She leaned over him. "This is what happens when you make me angry."

Professor Agasa was the one to finally shut the front door when he got to the house. He quickly noticed the tense atmosphere. "I'll just go make some tea then, shall I?" he suggested as he chuckled shakily. He quickly hightailed it off to the kitchen.

Then someone finally realized that one of their number was missing. "Hey, where'd that little girl go?" Joe asked. "The one that shouted at Nancy."

Conan slammed his face into his palm. Fenton was having problems getting his head around things. "Wait, there's _more_ of them?" He paused. "Whatever _them_ are?"

"Haibara, come on out. I guess," Conan called out, and Haibara came back from behind the door to the basement where she was hiding.

Fenton stared. "Okay. Does anyone want to explain just what the _hell_ is _going on here_?"

Nancy clapped her hands together. "A mutual meeting of enlightenment! I like this idea!"

Conan growled. "Fine. Everybody, sit down on something."

After some shifting (it was like a logic puzzle; Frank and Joe sat next to each other; Frank did not, regardless of attempts otherwise, sit in Joe's lap; Fenton sat close to Joe but where he could keep a wary eye on mini Frank; Nancy sat close to Conan to keep an eye on him; and so on), finally everyone was ready.

Naturally, that was when the doorbell rang. "Don't even think about it," Conan warned Nancy as she made to get up. "I'll get it." True to his word, he did indeed stand up and walk over to the front door, opening it.

The person on the other side of the door started talking before Conan could get a word in edgewise. "Ah, Kudo, just the person I wanted to see! I wanted to have a little chat because you were really rather vague on why you needed that distraction a week ago, and so I started thinking about it and looking into it myself and I think you're holding back on me. It pains me to say it, but my partner in anti-crime is hiding something from me, and I'm here to find out what. So spill. Why was it so important that you get into that meeting room?"

Everyone sitting down slowly leaned to the side as one in an attempt to see who was at the door. Whoever was at the door also leaned to try and see who was inside when Conan gave to response. Finally the teenager's eyes made contact with those of the party within. Nancy recognized him as the boy from when Conan had given her that warning to back off. "Oh," he said quietly when he caught sight of them. "I just did something really wrong, didn't I?"

The back of Conan's head bobbed up and down. The darker-skinned teen grinned, striding in. "Well, might as well invite me to the party anyway! Introductions are in order it seems. I'm Hattori Heiji, Detective of the West!" He pointed to each of the group in turn. "You were in the meeting room that Kudo had me help him get in, you look like this dead guy but I'm sure there's an explanation for that, you're older than you look I'm guessing, you I know, and you were also in that meeting room. So, names!"

Professor Agasa poked his head out into the living room. "Oh. Looks like I'll be needing another cup of tea." He then retreated.

Hattori Heiji, Detective of the West, beamed widely, and Nancy actually felt a tiny bit of pity for Kudo Shinichi. Not a lot though. He still needed to learn how to trust people.

* * *

**Unexpected naked Joe! Unexpected not naked (unfortuantely) Heiji! Whistleblower Nancy! Brotherly love! Xanatos speed chinese checkers!**

**Two things to point out: One, I completely wrote myself into the Japanese summer break without even realizing it. Oops. Just ignore that please? Two, in case anyone's complaining about Joe decomposing: negative temperature cold chambers are usually used in police morgues and either greatly reduce or halt completely (can't find a definitive source) decomposition, and bodies have been kept in them for two years at times. Plus, Pandora.  
**

**Yeah, I got a little carried away. You would too though. Reviews?**


	7. The End

**Disclaimer: I don't own... Detective Conan, Magic Kaito, Nancy Drew, or the Hardy Boys.**

**I did it! In retrospect, this was a really bad time for me to start a fic if I wanted it to get finished up with any amount of regularity. But I did it, and now it's done! Woohoo!**

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Joe and Heiji quickly found within each other kindred spirits, particularly in the realm of tormenting little people.

Frank and Conan were not amused.

After much rapid fire conversation, Fenton finally understood just what was going on, with some help from Haibara. Nancy was forced to admit that she knew how Joe had come back to life, for a certain value of knowing. Eventually everything was covered, those with an interest in getting things out in the open keeping the topic moving along. After all of the vital bits of information had been gotten out of the way, the conversation started to wander to less important but still related topics.

"I would really like to know just how Kid is bringing people back to life," Haibara mentioned off-handedly.

"Curiosity of the impossible?" Fenton asked. "You're not the only one."

"More than that. The Apotoxin was derived from an experimental immortality formula. The ability to bring people back to life could be turned into immortality some way I'm sure. Since the Black Organization seems to be involved with Kid somehow, there's a chance that the two are related. Whatever it is he's got could help me find a cure."

Conan's face became hopeful. "You mean if you got your hands on whatever it was..." he trailed off as Haibara nodded.

Frank turned to Nancy. "Nancy, you have a way to contact Kid. Ask him about it. Also, have you managed to ask him about his connection to the Black Organization yet?"

Heiji interrupted. "Wait, you can talk to Kid? Do you know his true identity?"

"Oh." Nancy couldn't lie, but at the same time she didn't want to tell them who Kid was. Sure, it went against all her morals as a detective, but at the same time she felt that it wouldn't be right. "Err..."

"Never fear, Kaito Kid is here!"

As one, necks turned to look at the posing man in the door. The disguised Kid grinned maniacally at them as he shut the door behind him. Nancy groaned. "Okay, who is it?"

Kid put his hands to the side in a mock image of unknowing innocence. "I have no idea what you're talking about!"

"The only way you could have that kind of perfect timing is if you know what's going on already."

Kid shoved his hands into his pockets and took on the look of a scolded child. "Fine. Tantei-han."

"Hattori-kun, check your pockets," Nancy suggested.

Heiji did so, and pulled out a tiny bug. "Damn." He flicked it across the room at Kid who caught it deftly.

"After I saw Tantei-han in town, I knew something was about to go down so I figured I might as well know what." He flopped down on the couch next to Nancy and threw his arm around her shoulders. "And good thing I did too, huh?"

Nancy pushed the arm off. "Kid, you do realize that you just confirmed his suspicions, right?" she growled.

"Naturally." Kid opened the small bag he was carrying and dug around in it, pulling out a glass jar that Nancy recognized. In it was the glove, stained red, a small red rock, and a tiny amount of red liquid gathered in the bottom. "My peace offering."

Haibara moved to the edge of her seat, enthralled. Kid held it out further and, at a nod, Haibara stood up and took it from him. "I'll be working in the lab," she said before she was gone.

"You're just giving that to us?" Conan asked, suspicious.

"Of course." Kid sighed and rested his arms on his legs, leaning forward. "Look, I'm going to level with you guys, at least a little. Isn't that what this impromptu meeting's about? That stone's called Pandora. It was originally – I say originally, I mean when I found it – encased in another stone. The casing stone was shattered when a bullet hit it. There's a legend that says it grants immortality. Not quite the case, but as Haibara-san pointed out it could be made to be that way. From the similarities it seems possible that Pandora was what first gave rise to legends about the Philosopher's Stone. I was planning on destroying it when I found it, but then I ended up using it on Aoko instead. I consulted with an acquaintance to make sure that I hadn't accidentally brought her back permanently, and then since it seemed like the right thing to do I got her to help me out with you," he said, looking at Joe. "And now I'm giving it to you guys to use to fix your problem. When you're done though I'll kindly ask you to destroy it. As much as Pandora is fabled to give life, she's taken far more indirectly."

Fenton nodded knowingly. "People would kill for that kind of power."

"Which is my connection with the Black Organization," Kid carried on. "I was Kid in order to steal Pandora and destroy it so that they could never get their hands on it. A second goal was to lure them out into the open so that they would be arrested, but that never happened. Now that I have Pandora, I'm done with being Kid. Now that I'm done with being Kid, I can't lure them out into the open. A bit on the dangerous side, you understand. So I'm here, along with to give you Pandora, in order to offer my services to your rag-tag band of rebels that's fighting the evil empire!" he finished with a cheesy grin.

Joe chuckled. "Now that you mention it..."

"Are you saying...?" Conan started.

"I'm putting away the cape and want to join forces with you. Yep."

Conan looked very unsure of himself. "Um... I don't..."

"Kudo," Kid started seriously, "You haven't lost anything you for sure can't get back yet. I have. You can trust me." When Conan still hesitated, Kid reached up to his neck and tugged at the edge of the mask he was wearing. He pulled it off in one go with the ease of long practice. "Hello. My name's Kuroba Kaito. Nice to meet you."

Joe immediately started laughing uncontrollably at something. Frank gaped for a few seconds before joining him. "We thought... something... was a little too streamlined!" Joe managed to get out.

Fenton frowned at them. "What's so funny boys?"

"Inside job!" Joe shouted.

Frank managed to quell his laughter entirely before talking, unlike Joe. "Does Aoko-san know?" he asked Kaito.

"If she did, do you honestly think I'd still be alive?"

"Point."

Fenton looked between Frank and Joe. "Mind explaining?"

Kaito spoke up. "As Kuroba Kaito, I'm an amateur magician. As a close friend of Nakamori Aoko, her father sometimes invites me to heists to get my take, as an amateur magician, on what I think Kid will do and whether I think his security measures will be effective. As Kaito Kid, I naturally took advantage of that on the occasions that the opportunity presented itself."

Fenton shook his head, chuckling. "You youngsters are amazing sometimes."

"On to another point," Kaito started, "Should I be making plans to leave the country?"

This startled Nancy. "What? Why?"

Kaito cocked an eyebrow. "Well, I _did_ just reveal my true identity to a room full of detectives, most of whom have chased me at one point or another."

Fenton fixed Kaito with a sincere look. "You have my gratitude for a number of things. My lips are sealed."

Joe nodded. "Yeah. You seem like a good guy, in a very vague sense of the word. We only catch bad guys."

Conan smirked. "Besides, I'm sure some of your more... unique skills will come in handy. Why turn down an ally like you?"

Nancy snorted. "What about me?"

"I didn't know you," Conan explained. "You were a complete unknown. I had no idea if you could be even marginally connected, how good you were at keeping your mouth shut, etcetera. I've been chasing Kid for a while though. He's an annoyance, but he's demonstrated that he's against them and he's clearly quite good at not spilling secrets."

Nancy glared at him, but accepted the explanation.

Frank leaned forward. "Anyway, you've heard everything that we've said. Why don't you tell us what you know now?"

"Okay, fair enough. I warn you, it isn't much though." And with that, Kaito began his story of what he knew.

* * *

Things changed after that. Not that Nancy wasn't expecting them to, but after the past few weeks the changes made everything seem a little surreal.

Hakuba Saguru cottoned on quickly to the fact that Nancy and Kaito had mutual knowledge of something he didn't, and Nancy could almost _see_ it driving him nuts. Fortunately she wasn't forced to run her own interference anymore, and she and Kaito routinely backed each other up whenever Hakuba started frothing at the mouth particularly violently. Aoko helped as well, albeit unknowingly. She and Kaito were now officially an item, and they were rarely apart.

Aoko mentioned once to Nancy while they were cleaning up after dinner that if she'd known Kaito could be that sweet and caring, she'd have made the dating him thing happen a lot sooner. Nancy just smiled, thinking that there was a lot more to the situation than that.

Joe meanwhile got to try out the, "Rumors of my demise were greatly exaggerated," line on his mother over the phone, who understandably freaked. Laura had previously heard from Fenton that they'd found Frank, and was now more confused then ever as to why they couldn't come home yet. With help from Frank via the bowtie voice changer, Joe convinced her that it was really complicated, and that an explanation could wait until they got home. Frank in turn assured her that Joe would be back in time for the new school year and that he'd come home as soon as he could.

But the really surreal part was where things had actually obtained a semblance of calm, even though for all accounts and purposes everyone should be running around like headless chickens. The impossible murder investigation was shut down by an order from above, and as advised by a phone call from Shinichi all those involved refrained from complaining. Now that Joe was out of the morgue and Frank's location was known, for a certain value of known, no one raised their eyebrows when Fenton cut ties with the police and went off to do his own thing. And since the Black Organization was pulling its usual not-appearing-in-this-city thing, Fenton's own thing was spending time with Frank and Joe, the three of them recently having learned yet another valuable lesson about human mortality. To Conan's chagrin, they did their family time in public places whilst sightseeing, and while Frank did keep his head down and pretend to be a cousin, it was more than Conan liked (Nancy privately thought he was a bit of a hypocrite). But Conan, despite his grumblings, didn't insist on pointing out how things would be different if he were in control of the situation, Heiji went back to Osaka, and Haibara was busy doing whatever it was that freaky scientist types (Frank's description; after a little bit of time in her company Joe concurred) did when confronted with something new to poke and prod.

The peace didn't quite have the feeling of the calm before the storm, but it did have 'The Waiting Game' stamped all over it.

And then the waiting became worth it.

* * *

As Nancy stepped out of Ekoda High School, she spotted two Kuroba Kaitos by the gate. She immediately decided that this simply _must_ be wrong, because the concept of two Kuroba Kaitos was mind boggling. If there were two Kuroba Kaitos in existence, then something was either seriously wrong, or soon would be seriously wrong. That was just the way Kaito rolled.

One of them was definitely not Kaito though. Not-Kaito was dressed in a different school uniform, and his hair looked as if it had actually seen a comb within the past month. Not-Kaito was also the first to spot her, and waved. "Nancy-san!"

Nancy smiled, recognizing Kudo Shinichi. "Kudo-kun!" She quickly hurried over, more than a little bit surprised. "What are you doing here?"

Shinichi grinned. "I thought I'd come over here myself to deliver the good news."

"So Haibara-san's done it?"

Shinichi nodded. "She's making Frank-san wait twenty-four hours though, just in case. Which is something he is most definitely not pleased about."

Nancy chuckled. "Of course."

"And of course I thought that, now that I'm me, now would be a good time for Kuroba-kun here to give me an introduction to his resources."

Kaito put on a pouty face. "Come on, you never mentioned anything about that." He made an exaggerated sigh. "What happens if you change your mind, hmm? I'm not sure I want to take that kind of leap."

From the small, secretive smirk, Nancy could almost see Shinichi's satisfied cloud of revenge wafting over Kaito. But before either boy could say anything else, they were interrupted.

"Ah, Kuroba. Well this is fascinating. I wasn't aware you knew Kudo Shinichi."

Kaito glared at Saguru. "Buzz off, Hakuba. I wasn't aware that who I knew was any of your business."

Shinichi tried to disrupt the coming sortie of words. "Hakuba Saguru, isn't it? A pleasure to meet you."

Saguru smiled politely. "Likewise. What brings you to this part of town? I wasn't aware that you spent much time in Tokyo anymore."

Apparently, all he had managed to do was to make the sortie a three-way one. "Oh I'm back for good this time, or so I hope," Shinichi deflected. "I'm here because Kuroba-kun was instrumental in bringing to light a piece of one of my recent cases, and I wanted to thank him."

"Kaito, you never mentioned anything about something like that!"

Aoko, startling everybody, came out of nowhere and grabbed onto Kaito's arm. "By the way, Sensei's really mad this time. Maybe you want to lay off a little? There's only so much she can take."

"Ah, yes Kuroba. It's not like you to be modest," Saguru volleyed. "Do tell. Maybe it will help me on one of my cases in the future as well."

Shinichi tried to block the attack. "Oh, he didn't know about it. I saw him do some magic for a couple of kids in a park, and it helped me to realize how a man had been murdered. It turns out that my mother knew his father, so I came to thank him for it."

"And I suppose you accidentally mentioned it to her and she provided you with the details," Kaito turned on his ally.

Nancy smirked internally. It really would be too bad that she wasn't going to be around to see the rest of this bizarre, three-way (counting Hattori, four-way) working rivalry pan out and come to a conclusion.

Aoko tugged on Nancy's sleeve. "Hey, you've got to go home and pack, right? Let's go and leave the boys to their egos."

"Abandoning me, Aoko?" Kaito whined.

Shinichi meanwhile grabbed _his_ sleeve. "Come on, Mom made me promise to say hi to your mother for her. Let's go," he pulled Kaito out of the line of fire.

And try as he might, Hakuba Saguru could not come up with an excuse to follow either group.

* * *

Shinichi and Kaito came and saw Nancy and the Hardys off at the airport. "If you ever need help, you _have_ to call us. We'll come running," Joe tried to make them promise.

"You will do no such thing," Fenton glared. Frank looked as if he couldn't decide who to side with.

"If you ever need someone in the States to poke their nose around, you know how to get in touch," Nancy offered.

Shinichi nodded. "I'll keep you guys appraised of major developments."

"And I'll keep you guys appraised of the minor developments!" Kaito grinned. "Like when Shinichi-kun finally goes on a date with Mouri-san!"

Shinichi _glared_. "_Kuroba-kun_, you will do no such thing."

"Oh come on, what's a little harmless gossip amongst friends?" Kaito leaned in close to Nancy and stage-whispered, "I happen to have an inside accomplice who's perfectly willing to feed me all the juicy bits!"

Shinichi pinched the bridge of his nose. "You guys should probably go board your plane."

Nancy put her hand on Kaito's shoulder. "Kuroba-kun, please don't torment the detectives too much?"

"Detectives plural?" Kaito mused. "That might be a bit too much to promise."

"Kudo-kun's right, we really should be going," Frank stated.

And so they said their goodbyes and went. And for the most part, that was the end of that.

For the most part.

* * *

**THE END.**

**With room for a sequel left open because I had originally planned on writing one, but the fire behind this fic has died an ugly death and so that's not likely to happen anymore. Which is why this ending, to me at least, feels a bit of a cop-out. I just wanted to get this finished, because I haven't not finished a fic for what seems like years, and I don't want to start leaving them hanging now. Reviews?**

**For my next cracky DCMK crossover: a Firefly AU! (probably).**


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